Over one million refugees and migrants reached Europe by sea in 2015. They mainly arrived in Greece and Italy, as analysed in FRA’s fundamental rights report focus chapter Asylum and migration into the European Union in 2015.
To respond to the increased arrivals of asylum seekers, the European Commission issued the European Agenda on Migration. This introduced the hotspot approach, which entailed larger EU funding and operational deployments by the European Commission, Frontex, the EU Asylum Agency and, later, Europol. The goal of this approach was to help Greece and Italy to identify, register and fingerprint newly arrived people. FRA regularly visited the initial reception facilities—or hotspots—hosting new arrivals. Regular coordination meetings took place between national authorities, the European Commission and EU agencies under this new system, whose functioning is outlined in the 2023 European Parliamentary Research Service briefing.
In 2024, with the Pact on Migration and Asylum (the Pact), the EU revised its asylum rules. Certain aspects of the legal instruments adopted under the Pact were inspired by the earlier hotspot approach. Similar to the hotspot approach, some provisions in the Pact require a careful approach when implementing them, so as to comply with the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (the Charter).
FRA has closely followed the application of the hotspot approach in Greece and Italy since 2016. FRA has since released several reports providing its fundamental rights expertise to the EU and the concerned Member States. FRA’s November 2016 hotspot opinion and FRA’s March 2019 hotspot opinion, both issued upon request by the European Parliament, describe the serious fundamental rights challenges in the implementation of the approach. FRA suggested ways to address them, while paying particular attention to the treatment of people with special needs. In 2021, FRA flagged 12 fundamental rights issues to consider in relation to initial-reception facilities at external borders. FRA’s Fundamental Rights Report 2024 (section 3.3.4) lists measures to prevent and respond to gender-based violence in selected facilities for new arrivals.
FRA had a permanent field presence in Greece for many years, which allowed the Agency to gain insightful knowledge of the situation on the ground. In 2025 and 2026, the last FRA visits to Greece, Italy and Cyprus— where procedures are inspired by the hotspot approach— took place.
This report presents selected lessons learnt from 10 years of FRA’s work, concluding its operational engagement. It covers the 10 areas that the Agency’s advice has focused on. Each section lists selected lessons learnt in bullet points which:
- intend to draw the attention to potential issues that may emerge, considering the fundamental rights challenges experienced in Greece and Italy; and
- present examples of actions Italy and Greece took to prevent fundamental rights risks and gaps or to address these.
The reference section at the end lists selected guidance materials by FRA, the EU Asylum Agency (EUAA) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugee (UNHCR) as well as national authorities quoted in this report.
With this report, FRA presents an analysis of its observations gathered over several years at hotspots in Greece and Italy, presented as a ‘lessons learnt’. The aim is to support asylum, screening, reception and law enforcement authorities in Member States across the EU in overcoming fundamental rights challenges they encounter when implementing certain aspects of the Pact. Although operational realities vary across the EU, the considerations listed in the bullet points may provide inspiration to national authorities in charge of screening, border procedures and reception of new arrivals.