BRUSSELS — The European Union on Thursday said it would drastically reduce asylum claims from seven nations in Africa, the Middle East and Asia by deeming them safe countries of origin, prompting widespread outrage from human rights groups on International Migrants’ Day.
An agreement between European Parliament and the European Council, which is the group of the 27 EU heads of state, said the countries would be considered safe if they lack “relevant circumstances, such as indiscriminate violence in the context of an armed conflict.”
Asylum requests by people from Bangladesh, Colombia, Egypt, Kosovo, India, Morocco and Tunisia will be “fast-tracked, with applicants having to prove that this provision should not apply to them,” read the announcement of the agreement. “The list can be expanded in the future under the EU’s ordinary legislative procedure.”
In 2024, EU nations endorsed sweeping reforms to the bloc’s failed asylum system. The rules were meant to resolve the issues that have divided the 27 countries since more than 1 million migrants swept into Europe in 2015, most fleeing war in Syria and Iraq.
Under the Pact on Migration and Asylum, which goes into force in June 2026, people can be sent to countries deemed safe, but not to those where they face the risk of physical harm or persecution.
Amnesty International EU advocate Olivia Sundberg Diez said the new measures were “a shameless attempt to sidestep international legal obligations” and would endanger migrants.
French MEP Mélissa Camara said the safe countries of origins concept and others agreed to by the Council and Parliament “opens the door to return hubs outside the EU’s borders, where third-country nationals are sometimes subjected to inhumane treatment with almost no monitoring” and “undoubtedly places thousands of people in exile in situations of danger.”
Céline Mias, the EU director of the Danish Refugee Council, said “we are deeply worried that this fast-track system will fail to protect people in need of protection, including activists, journalists and marginalized groups in places where human rights are clearly under attack.”
Alessandro Ciriani, an Italian MEP with the European Conservatives and Reformists group, said the designation sends a firm message that the EU has toughened its borders.
“Europe wants enforceable rules and shared responsibility. Now this commitment must become operational: effective returns, structured cooperation with third countries and real measures to support EU member states,” he said.
He said that clear delineations of safe and unsafe nations would rid the EU of “excessive interpretative uncertainty” that led to a kind of paralysis for national decision-makers over border controls.
The measures also allow individual nations within the bloc to designate other countries safe for their own immigration purposes.
McNeil writes for the Associated Press.
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