The Member States of the European Union (EU) reached an agreement this Monday, December 8, on the rules that classify third countries as safe for the return of people who have been denied the right to asylum in the bloc.
With this agreement, the EU Council can now negotiate a common position with the European Parliament.
The EU Council agreed that the concept of a safe third country can be applied when, firstly, there is a link between the applicant and the country (no longer mandatory), the person has transited through the third country before arriving in the EU or, thirdly, there is an agreement or scheme with a safe third country that guarantees that a person’s asylum application will be examined in the country in question.
The latter case does not apply to unaccompanied minors, the Council said in a statement.
The new rules stipulate that an asylum seeker who appeals an inadmissibility decision based on the safe third country concept will no longer have the automatic right to stay in the EU during the appeal process.
The concept of a safe country of origin allows Member States to create a special system for analyzing requests for international protection.
Under the 2024 Asylum Procedure Regulation, adopted under the Pact on Asylum and Migration, Member States must apply an accelerated procedure to applicants coming from a safe country of origin and can carry it out at the border or in transit zones.
The rules on safe countries of origin are based on the assumption that applicants from those countries benefit from sufficient protection against the risk of persecution or serious violations of their fundamental rights. Non-EU countries can only be designated as safe countries of origin when they meet a high level of security.
Candidate countries for EU membership, as well as Bangladesh, Colombia, Egypt, India, Kosovo, Morocco and Tunisia are classified as safe.