Reception conditions for asylum applicants across EU Member States have been under scrutiny for years, marked by chronic capacity shortfalls, overcrowding, homelessness and a patchwork of national restrictions despite declining asylum applications.

Based on findings of the First Annual Migration Management Cycle, the Commission designated Cyprus, Greece, Italy and Spain as Member States under migratory pressure. By March 2026, ten Member States were receiving targeted EUAA operational support to address strained systems, reflecting both the scale of infrastructure gaps and efforts to harmonise standards amid fiscal pressures.

In August 2025, the CJEU (C-97/24) established that Member States cannot invoke sudden rises in asylum applications or accommodation shortages to evade their obligations to provide minimum reception conditions like shelter, food, and water. Such failures, if they cause destitution or degrading treatment, are a serious breach of EU law. Member States must in any event cover the basic needs of the persons concerned, in accordance with the obligation to respect human dignity rooted in Article 1 of the EU Charter. In Ireland, in a separate case, the High Court ruled in February 2026 that the state should pay damages to asylum seekers who were left homeless upon their arrival. According to the Irish Refugee Council in December 2025, around 3,100 people were not offered accommodation in 2025. The Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration noted that the number of people without accommodation was reduced from over 3,500 in March 2025 to 613 in October 2025.

Instances of homelessness were also reported in other Member States, for example in Belgium, Netherlands and Spain. Belgian reception authorities have been facing a long-running reception crisis since 2023, with overcrowding regularly leaving single men without accommodation, as families were prioritised. At the same time, fewer new arrivals and a modest increase in departures led to a slight improvement in 2025, according to Fedasil, the Belgian reception authority. In Belgium, occupancy remained extremely high over the year, averaging around 94%, with about 25,000 persons having received a reception place. Occupancy rates remained very high also in the Netherlands, where the government has taken measures to limit the expensive emergency accommodation that is provided to 40% of those entitled to reception support (30,000 persons). Leaving aside the lack of adequate reception for unaccompanied children in the Canary Islands described in section 8, in 2025 the Spanish Ombudsman criticised the authorities in Melilla for denying reception to people who asked for asylum but had appointments weeks away, leaving them homeless on the streets. 

National policies across the EU also rely on limitation, sanctions, or withdrawals of reception benefits to manage capacity pressures and secondary movements, as the following examples illustrate.

In August 2024, the Finnish government had temporarily cut allowances for asylum seekers' daily needs by roughly half. The government proposed to extend this measure until 11 June 2026. From 1 March 2026, new rules amending the Social Assistance Act will also fully count all earned income and benefits when calculating eligibility for a reception allowance. In Ireland, applicants in employment living in state-provided accommodation will have to contribute to the costs depending on their income; this scheme is being rolled out over a 12 month period from January 2026. From March 2025, Swedish authorities require asylum seekers to live in accommodation assigned by the Migration Agency to get financial support, like daily allowances. Those living on their own lost this aid, apart for a few exceptions for families already together. In Austria, authorities in Vienna abolished minimum income support for subsidiary protection beneficiaries from 1 January 2026.

Several court cases have assessed the legality of national restrictions on material reception conditions. In Belgium, amendments to the Reception Act allowed authorities to refuse accommodation to "M-status" holders since August 2025 – these are persons whose asylum claims fall under the Dublin system because they are already recognised as protected persons elsewhere in the EU. Belgium's Constitutional Court suspended this in February 2026 pending CJEU review, citing potential EU law violations. In Italy, authorities withdrew all reception conditions (housing, food) from an asylum seeker and his child who were refusing a transfer to a centre in Milan for schooling reasons. On 18 December 2025, the CJEU (Case C-184/24) assessed this situation and ruled that such total deprivation of material reception conditions is unlawful, even for repeated refusals. The CJEU held that sanctions must remain proportionate and preserve human dignity. While coercion measures may be used to enforce transfers, minimum support cannot be withdrawn.