EU Response to the Refugee Crisis: The ‘hotspot’ approach, Special Report 06/2017

Available in a total of 23 languages, this special report examines the effectiveness of the “hotspot” approach introduced by the Commission in 2015. The hotspot approach was designed to help manage the large flow of immigrants arriving at countries on the EU’s external border, which face a disproportionate migratory pressure. The system was designed to expedite the work of processing asylum cases as quickly as possible as well as coordinating the return of irregular migrants.

The report finds that despite considerable support from the EU, at the end of 2016 the reception facilities in hotspot locations in Greece and Italy were still not adequate. Implementation of follow-up procedures, necessary to the hotspot process, was often slow and impeded by various bottlenecks which had overall repercussions on the operation of the hotspots.

To gain access to the other translations of this material, visit the European Council of Auditors.