The grey areas of migration control: quick asylum decisions risk denying individuals their right to protection

One of the key problems being faced on Europe’s southern borders is the difficulty in processing asylum decisions at a pace that can keep up with the numbers of new arrivals. As Simon McMahon writes, the establishment of so called ‘hot spot’ reception centres in areas hit by the current crisis has been proposed as a mechanism for quickly identifying valid asylum claims. However he argues that while this approach may have its merits, grey areas exist, with many individuals having their status determined by arbitrary judgements that risk denying them their right to protection.