The European Commission presented its first list of “safe” countries for the purposes of asylum on Wednesday, providing a list of states from which those applying for asylum will be subject to accelerated treatment within three months.
The Commission considers that all the candidate countries meet the criteria designated as a country of safe origin, with the temporary exception of Ukraine because of the current war on its territory. This means that Albania, Bosnia, Georgia, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Turkiye are all on the list. Seven others join them: Kosovo, Bangladesh, Colombia, Egypt, India, Morocco and Tunisia.
Migrants from all these countries are rarely accepted as refugees in the European Union, with recognition rates or less than 5%, said an EU official.
The European list must now be approved by Parliament and the Member States, but it is not intended to replace the national lists.
Indeed, many EU countries have their own lists Countries of safe origin, whose citizens are subject to accelerated asylum procedures.
For example, Italy list Between 19 countries, including Ghana, Senegal and Algeria. Germany currently lists nine countries, but the entering government wishes to broaden it considerably by including Algeria, India, Morocco and Tunisia.
The Commission indicates that its common list will encourage convergence between the national lists of the Member States. The list of commissions could also appear in future proposals on the issue, to rationalize the designation of safe countries of origin, said the EU official.
The EU list of safe countries of origin is also “dynamic”, which means that countries can be deleted or that new countries can be included. The Commission will regularly examine the conditions of each country on the list, said the manager, adding: “The fact that a country is not in the list does not mean that this country is necessarily sure”.
The designation of safe countries of origin has proven controversial.
In various Member States, the courts have blocked the expulsion of a migrant or the treatment of their asylum application under accelerated procedure, on the grounds that their country of origin could not be determined in complete safety.
Italy and Albania have agreed that the former send to the centers of the second asylum seekers in Bangladesh and Egypt, pending asylum assessments by the Italian authorities under an accelerated procedure.
But Italian courts blocked Transfers, referring the case to the EU Court of Justice, because it was not clear if the countries of origin could be considered completely safe.
The Commission explains this problem in its list, offering the Member States the possibility of excluding parties from a country sure of the designation.
The concept of a country of safe origin differs from that of a secure third country, which is intended to designate the countries not of the EU where the asylum seekers of the EU can be expelled.
