Earlier this month, the Commission agreed to allow Poland, Lithuania and Latvia to detain people for 16 weeks in processing centres on their frontier with Belarus as part of new temporary measures initially approved for six months.

Brussels’ proposals for the remaining 24 EU member states allow them to first screen people at the border over a maximum of five days.

Under the plans, migrants would then be sent home or sent into a 12-week asylum procedure, up from the current maximum of four weeks. Children under the age of 12 would be exempted.

In a separate document, officials from Vienna stressed the new EU-wide asylum rules need tightening because of the risk of future “hybrid attacks on European borders”.

It calls for “accelerated border procedures with few exceptions” and “effective restriction of movement” to deter migrants from crossing into the EU.