Migration management in “hotspots” in Italy and Greece are strained and have not achieved the objectives set out by the European Union, according to Leo Brincat, a member of the European Court of Auditors (ECA). 

Mr Brincat was speaking at a meeting with Auditor General Charles Deguara, where he presented recommendations of a report by the ECA on migrant processing centres in frontline countries.

Despite increased asylum-processing capacities in both countries, long handling times and bottlenecks in asylum processes persisted in making the situation desperate on the ground, he said.

Mr Brincat, a former Labour Cabinet minister, described how he had been personally shocked that in Greece, one asylum seeker had his first interview regarding his asylum application scheduled for 2023.

“If I were in this person’s shoes, I believe there would be only two alternatives open to me, either suicide or actively looking for a person to smuggle me to another country.”

Due to the unprecedented levels of migration in recent years, which peaked in 2015 and led to increased asylum applications, particularly in Greece and Italy, the EU set up “hotspots”, introduced temporary relocation schemes and increased its funding. 

However, there was a disparity between these objectives and the reality on the ground, said Mr Brincat, and the report set out to address these shortcomings.

The report found that EU support for both countries fell short of its objections, relocation schemes did not reach their targets, and asylum and return procedures were not as effective and swift as they could be.

Registration and fingerprinting of migrants had improved significantly, but the situation in the Greek hotspots re-mained highly critical in terms of capacity and the situation of unaccompanied minors, the report claimed.

The report also identified a number of operational weaknesses in the relocation process. Of the initial target of 160,000 migrants, EU countries legally agreed to relocate 98,256. However, only 34,705 (21,999 from Greece and 12,706 from Italy) were relocated.

Furthermore, the EU asylum support office’s operations (EASO) still suffered from a shortage of national experts, while the EU coast guard agency (Frontex) had actually deployed more staff than needed to the Italian hotspots, which were found to be empty or almost empty, detailed the report.

Finally, the return of irregular migrants remained low and problematic across the European Union.

According to Mr Brincat, the issue is that there is not enough synergy among the key players in the process of migration management.

He conceded that migration management is very complex. “It’s easier to analyse and criticise from afar. But there needs to be simplification of processes.”

“Unless there is a collective effort the situation will remain static or get even worse even if the number of people crossing over the Mediterranean may have declined in comparison to 2015,” he said.