What are the EU’s 'safe country' proposals for asylum seekers?

The European Commission plans to make it easier to nonstop asylum seekers for processing beyond nan bloc's borders by revising nan conception of a "safe 3rd country".

Under existent EU migration rules, personnel states tin transportation asylum seekers to a non-EU state that is considered safe, but only if nan migrants person a relationship pinch nan federation successful question, specified arsenic a erstwhile sojourn aliases family connection.

A caller proposal, announced by nan Commission past week arsenic portion of a wider overhaul of asylum procedures, said that request should beryllium removed.

Critics opportunity this mirrors a scheme by nan erstwhile UK authorities to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda, which was scrapped aft being ruled unlawful by nan country's Supreme Court.

However, German MEP Lena Düpont, a personnel of nan Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who supports nan proposal, based on that it sends nan correct message.

Data from nan European Commission showed that, each year, astatine slightest 400,000 overseas nationals without nan correct to enactment successful nan EU are ordered to leave. However, only astir 20% of them are efficaciously returned.

Meanwhile, NGOs and migration experts said nan connection raises superior concerns astir guaranteeing basal quality rights, and could load poorer nations.

"Far from it being chaotic and arbitrary to nonstop group to countries to which they person nary connection, nary prospects, nary support, we besides spot that arsenic fundamentally devastating connected a quality level," said Olivia Sundberg Diez, Amnesty International’s EU advocator for migration and asylum.

"It ignores a person's agency, and truthful we don't see that it tin beryllium reasonable to expect them to stay there. This cannot beryllium a sustainable solution," she added.

Human authorities concerns

The connection follows different motion from nan Commission called "Safe Origin Countries", which was put guardant past month.

It said that asylum requests of migrants coming from EU campaigner countries, specified arsenic Turkey and Georgia, and 7 different countries deemed "safe", could beryllium fast-tracked arsenic they are "unlikely to beryllium successful".

Some EU personnel states, including Italy and Greece, already person a nationalist registry of safe countries of origin, but nan projected EU database intends to support a much azygous system, according to nan Commission.

"The purpose is to amended some nan processing of asylum claims erstwhile they tin beryllium seen arsenic manifestly unfounded for various reasons. And astatine nan aforesaid time, make judge that those who do not person a correct to enactment wrong nan European Union, but are already here, are efficaciously returned," said Düpont, nan German MEP.

Human authorities groups person questioned whether immoderate of nan countries connected nan database should really beryllium considered safe. For example, nan database includes Egypt, where, according to Human Rights Watch, nan authorities systematically detain and punish critics and activists, and persecute LGBTQ+ people.

The Commission has presented nan database arsenic a "dynamic" 1 that tin beryllium expanded aliases modified complete time, and said that nations that nary longer fulfil nan criteria will beryllium removed.

"This increases nan risks of arbitrary, automatic detention successful countries acold from nan EU," said Sundberg Diez of Amnesty.

"We've already seen successful nan EU's existing engagement pinch countries for illustration Tunisia [with which nan EU has a memorandum of understanding] that it simply doesn't person nan expertise aliases nan liking successful monitoring and enforcing quality authorities protections."

She stressed that nan proposals nan Commission has put guardant since March each person nan aforesaid intention, "which is making it harder for group to entree information successful Europe and shifting that work to connection protection to countries acold from nan bloc".

Düpont disagreed pinch this take.

"Both proposals stock nan purpose to make asylum and return procedures much efficient, much effective, but of course, besides much implementable for nan personnel states, truthful that we tin benignant of bring backmost bid and humanity to nan communal European asylum and migration policies," she said.

The proposals will beryllium heard by nan European Parliament and nan European Council. This will beryllium followed by talks to work together connected a communal text, which will yet go law.