The European Union on Wednesday published a list of seven countries it considers “safe”, in a bid to speed up migrant returns by making it harder for citizens of those nations to claim asylum in the bloc.
The European Commission said it was proposing to designate Kosovo, Bangladesh, Colombia, Egypt, India, Morocco and Tunisia as “safe countries of origin”.
The move is set to allow EU governments to process asylum applications filed from citizens of those countries more quickly — by introducing a presumption that such applications lack merit.
“Many member states are facing a significant backlog of asylum applications, so anything we can do now to support faster asylum decisions is essential,” said Magnus Brunner, the EU’s commissioner for migration.
EU candidate countries would also in principle meet the criteria to be designated as safe countries, exceptions being when they are hit by a conflict, the commission said.
The EU had already presented a similar list in 2015 but the plan was abandoned due to heated debates over whether or not to include Turkey.
