By Ingrid Melander
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union members should stop sending asylum seekers back to the countries where they first landed on European soil when those states are struggling to cope, the European Commission will propose on Wednesday.
Countries such as Malta and Greece on the bloc's coastal borders are becoming overburdened by high numbers of refugees, returned to them under the so-called "Dublin regulation," and urging other EU countries to take a bigger share.
"It is proposed to establish a mechanism of suspension of Dublin transfers in limited circumstances in order to prevent that member states experiencing particular pressure on their asylum systems are not further overburdened," according to a draft proposal seen by Reuters on Tuesday.
That would "ensure that asylum-seekers are not sent to member states who cannot offer them an adequate standard of protection in particular in terms of reception conditions and access to the asylum procedure," a summary of the proposal said.
The U.N. refugee agency UNHCR urged the EU in April to stop returning asylum seekers to Greece because of harsh conditions and the low rate of asylum claims.
The 27 EU states received 103,500 new asylum applications during the first half of this year, UNHCR data showed, down 3 percent from the first half of 2007.
However, there were strong variations between countries, with the tiny Mediterranean island of Malta seeing a 177 percent increase for that period.
The European Commission proposal, which needs to be agreed by EU governments and lawmakers to become law, would also aim to make it easier for refugees of the same family to be together.
Rights groups and the UNHCR have long criticised the EU for wide differences on the rates of asylum granted by member states and the conditions for the reception of asylum seekers, despite a set of common EU asylum rules.
The EU executive will also table proposals on Wednesday aiming at harmonising reception conditions, including giving access to the labour market and ensuring asylum seekers are detained only in exceptional cases.
EU countries have set themselves the goal of having a common asylum system by 2012.
(Reporting by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Sophie Hares)
