The European Parliament is set to call for an end to the rule whereby the first country a migrant enters becomes responsible for processing their asylum application, saying this places disproportionate pressure on border states such as Malta.

MEPs will vote tomorrow on a comprehensive report, co-authored by Maltese MEP Roberta Metsola, which is the first to lay out a holistic approach to migration, setting the Parliament’s political direction for the rest of the legislature.

The report enjoys broad cross-party support and is expected to pass with a large majority. It includes sections on search and rescue, people smuggling, returns, relocation, integration, security, resettlement and tackling root causes of migration.

The call to overhaul the ‘first country of entry’ principle – set out by the controversial Dublin Regulations – is based on the system in place not sufficiently considering the particular migratory pressures faced by the states on Europe’s external borders.

“The system has largely failed to achieve its two primary goals of establishing objective and fair criteria for allocation of responsibility and of providing swift access to international protection,” the report states.

Instead, the European Parliament will recommend a system whereby all asylum applications are collected centrally at EU level, rather than individually by member states, and responsibility allocated to different countries on the basis of the criteria used for relocation decisions.

Any new system must incorporate the key concepts of family unity and the best interests of the child

The report adds: “Any new system for allocation of responsibility must incorporate the key concepts of family unity and the best interests of the child.”

The European Commission last week presented its own proposals for a review of the Dublin regulations, including an ambitious “permanent distribution scheme” where applications would be spread across EU based on “relative size, wealth and absorption capacities”.

The plan, however, is seen as unlikely to garner the required support from member states. The Commission has, therefore, also put forward an alternative, more modest proposal, which would keep the present system in place but add a “corrective fairness mechanism” allowing asylum seekers to be relocated around Europe from frontline countries during times of crisis.

Ahead of the vote tomorrow, Dr Metsola told the Times of Malta the report’s emphasis was on shifting Europe’s rationale from finding emergency solutions to looking at the situation from a long-term, all-encompassing perspective.

“Essentially, we are saying that there is a need to protect those who require help but other states outside of Europe must also play their part and Europe can and should help them do that,” she said.

The Nationalist MEP added that, while everyone had the right to seek protection, the right to protection was not an “inalienable right to migration”.

With regard to labour migration, she noted, the report underlined that it must be left up to member states to decide how to fill the gaps in their markets.

“Crucially, everyone’s rights and due process must be respected, but not everyone arriving in Europe is in need of protection and those who have no claim to protection must be returned safely and swiftly,” Dr Metsola said.