BRUSSELS, Dec 3: The European Commission proposed on Wednesday an overhaul of European Union asylum rules, saying it was necessary to fix a system that did not take enough care of refugees’ needs.

The 27-nation bloc, which attracts large numbers of asylum seekers, has rules dictating that asylum seekers’ requests must be examined in their EU country of entry.

Countries such as Malta and Cyprus, on the bloc’s coastal borders, are struggling to handle high numbers of refugees often trying to reach larger EU states such as Britain and Germany, and have urged other EU countries to take a bigger share.

When a country cannot cope anymore, it should be allowed to ask Brussels to suspend returns of asylum seekers for up to six months, the EU executive said on Wednesday.

The European Commission also wants to allow EU states that think another member’s asylum system is not up to standard to ask for a suspension of returns of asylum seekers to that state.

The EU executive could also decide to do so on its own initiative.

The UN 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 proposal, which also aims at making it easier for refugees to work in the EU country they live in, needs to be agreed by EU governments and lawmakers to become law.

“There are major differences among countries regarding asylum requests,” the EU’s top official for refugees said.

“It is unfair for EU states because they do not all bear the same burden, but it is most of all unfair for the asylum seekers,” EU Justice, Liberty and Security Commissioner Jacques Barrot said. A Chechen has a 72 per cent chance of being protected in Austria “but almost none in Slovakia”, he said, referring to wide disparities in the bloc in granting asylum.

He said reviewing the so-called Dublin rules on asylum seekers was needed because “the Dublin procedure ... worries too little about the asylum seeker”.

However, the EU executive proposed to keep the basic principle that the country through which the asylum seeker arrived in the EU should in principle handle his asylum request, but by making the system more flexible.

It will be easier for families to get together, Barrot said.

The European Council on Refugees and Exiles, a rights group, said the proposal to suspend transfers was positive. “However, it is disappointing that the changes proposed by the Commission do not go to the core of the problem,” it said in a statement. “By requiring that those fleeing persecution must claim asylum in the first EU country they reach, the Dublin system fails to take account of the fact that a person’s chance of being recognised as a refugee varies hugely from one EU country to another,” it said.

The 27 EU states received 103,500 new asylum applications during the first half of this year, UNHCR data showed, down 3 per cent from the first half of 2007.

There were strong variations among countries, with the tiny Mediterranean island of Malta seeing a 177 percent increase for that period.—Reuters