Migrants arriving in the EU (Image: Getty )

The British-style “Rwanda model” is being touted by some EU countries as a way to process more than a million migrants predicted to head to the bloc this year.

The idea of processing asylum applications in non-European countries is becoming increasingly attractive to several member states.

It comes as new statistics from the European Union Agency for Asylum, which includes Norway and Switzerland, show nearly 520,000 applications already this year with levels projected to hit those seen in 2015 and 2016 when numbers hit 1.3million.

The Times reports the agency said: “Historically, the volume of applications tends to be higher in the second half of the year, if this pattern holds, by the end of the year more than one million asylum applications will be received in 2023.”At the end of June 2023 some 682,000 cases were awaiting a firstinstance decision, which is up by 34 per cent compared to a year ago.”