---
title: "Brussels toys with an off-switch for asylum"
description: "The Ceuta crisis has revived calls to suspend a fundamental right, and alarmed those who would have to live with the consequences"
author: "Albion Grey"
published: 2026-09-26T10:21:12Z
modified: 2026-09-26T18:02:18Z
url: https://rews.cc/a/brussels-toys-with-an-off-switch-for-asylum-d0f8f5
language: en
tags: ["politics", "migration", "immigration", "asylum", "migrants", "europe", "us"]
publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)"
---

# Brussels toys with an off-switch for asylum

*The Ceuta crisis has revived calls to suspend a fundamental right, and alarmed those who would have to live with the consequences*

By Albion Grey · September 26, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/brussels-toys-with-an-off-switch-for-asylum-d0f8f5

## In brief

- Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen has proposed an emergency framework that could suspend the EU right to asylum
- The proposal follows the entry of 82,000 irregular migrants into Ceuta from Morocco in late July
- The UNHCR says suspension would breach the non-refoulement principle; Greece and Poland have taken similar national measures before
- Thousands marched in Madrid demanding migrant returns and, for some, a general election; about 8,300 migrants are housed in Ceuta
- A young Moroccan man died at a camp near Trampolín beach; the cause of death is not yet established

Rights that can be switched off in an emergency have a way of staying off. That is the fear rippling through parts of the European Parliament and the refugee charities after Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, used her State of the Union speech earlier this month to propose an emergency framework that could suspend the right to asylum within the European Union. The trigger was Ceuta, the Spanish exclave on Morocco’s coast, into which 82,000 irregular migrants poured in late July. Several thousand remain there, waiting for their claims to be assessed.

Suspension would be unprecedented at EU level. Under current rules any foreign national on EU soil may apply for asylum, however they arrived, and each claim is examined individually. Replacing that principle would permit what critics call collective pushbacks: people returned beyond the bloc’s borders regardless of their circumstances. The UN Refugee Agency says that would breach the principle of non-refoulement, since some could be sent back to torture, inhuman treatment or threats to their lives. “Even at times of migratory pressure, States must ensure that people seeking asylum have access to asylum procedures and cannot deviate from this important principle of international law,” the agency told Euronews.

Mrs von der Leyen insists the framework would be triggered only “under a strictly defined set of criteria” and would “allow for time-limited and strictly defined flexibility in standard procedures.” A Commission official told Euronews there is no clear timeline for a proposal and the details remain hazy; the subject is likely to be discussed on Saturday at a migration conference in Munich attended by ministers and representatives from 18 European countries. The vagueness has not reassured anyone. “Given her record, we have to expect a mechanism that lets member states suspend asylum whenever they decide a border is under pressure,” says Iftach Cohen, co-director of Front-Lex, a legal watchdog.

The record he means is not short. Greece suspended asylum processing for a month in March 2020 and again for three months in July 2025 after arrivals surged from eastern Libya; Poland did likewise in March 2025 for migrants crossing from Belarus, at the peak of what it described as the weaponisation of migrants by Russia and Belarus. National parliaments approved both measures, and Brussels did not challenge them. During a visit to the Greek-Turkish border in 2020, Mrs von der Leyen went so far as to call Greece “Europe’s shield.” The European Court of Human Rights has condemned Greece, Lithuania and Poland for pushbacks in various judgments.

Opposition is already mustering. Cecilia Strada, an Italian Socialist MEP, told Euronews the plan “would mean dismantling another piece of EU values” and that “exceptional circumstances” are merely an excuse for pushbacks, which are illegal under EU law. Michele LeVoy of PICUM, a platform for undocumented migrants, warns it “exposes people to being pushed back to places where they would face violence or death.” Mélissa Camara, a French Green, accuses Mrs von der Leyen of echoing “the xenophobic and populist rhetoric that far-right political groups have been using for years”; Damien Carême of The Left says he is ready to take legal action, arguing the Commission president “appears to have forgotten” that fundamental rights exist. Mrs von der Leyen counters that the EU “will always comply with its values and fundamental rights” while protecting its external borders.

## Meanwhile, in Madrid

In Spain the crisis has become a street battle over the government of Pedro Sánchez, the prime minister. Thousands joined Madrid’s second “March for Dignity” on Saturday, organised by the Sociedad Civil Española with backing from the conservative People’s Party and the hard-right Vox, marching from the Plaza de Cibeles towards Moncloa. Some demanded a general election. Santiago Abascal, Vox’s leader, insisted the migrants in Ceuta be returned to their countries of origin and accused Mr Sánchez of being “Morocco’s servant”; an earlier march, held before the July influx, drew 40,000 people by the Government Delegation’s count and 120,000 by the organisers’. Thousands also rallied across Spain on September 2nd, Ceuta’s official day.

Nearly two months on, Ceuta itself is stuck. Around 8,300 migrants are housed in city facilities; more than 4,000 are thought to be living on the streets. Firefighters recently found a makeshift settlement in underground tunnels where 30 to 50 people were believed to be sheltering, and on Friday a young Moroccan man died in a camp on a derelict factory site near Trampolín beach; the cause of death has not been established. The same day, police arrested three Moroccan men over the alleged detention of two migrant minors, who were taken to hospital, and 63 women, alone or with small children, were moved to a new facility.

Diplomacy is fraying, too. Morocco accuses Spain of obstructing returns; when José Manuel Albares, Spain’s foreign minister, met his Moroccan counterpart Nasser Bourita in New York, Mr Bourita complained of “obstacles” and “controversies” he believes Spain’s political class is fuelling. Italy briefly reimposed air and maritime border controls with Spain, denting Schengen’s free movement. All this, it is worth remembering, against a backdrop in which asylum applications and irregular arrivals across Europe have been falling since 2023.

That last fact should give Brussels pause. An emergency mechanism invented for a spike risks becoming the standard tool for a flow that is, by recent history, ebbing. Once national governments are handed a legal off-switch for asylum, the pressure to flip it will arrive with every election. The EU’s asylum rules have plenty of faults; scarcity of exceptions is not one of them.

## Sources

- [Ceuta crisis reignites debate over suspending the EU's right to asylum](https://euronews.com/2026/09/26/ceuta-crisis-reignites-debate-over-suspending-the-eus-right-to-asylum) — euronews.com
- [Thousands protest in Madrid over Ceuta migrant crisis](https://euronews.com/2026/09/26/thousands-of-protesters-take-to-the-streets-in-madrid-over-ceuta-migrant-crisis) — euronews.com