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 in a press release that it was proposing to designate Kosovo, Bangladesh, Colombia, Egypt, India, Morocco and Tunisia as "safe countries of origin".
The move, criticised by rights groups, is set to allow EU governments to process asylum applications filed from citizens of those countries more quickly - by introducing a presumption that such claims 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.
Brussels has been under pressure to clamp down on irregular arrivals and facilitate deportations, following a souring of public opinion on migration that has fuelled hard-right electoral gains in several countries.
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On Wednesday, the commission said EU candidate nations would also in principle meet the criteria to be designated as safe countries.
But it also laid out exceptions, including when they are hit by a conflict, something that would for example exclude Ukraine.
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, another candidate for membership.
The list published Wednesday can be expanded or reviewed over time and was drawn up looking at nations from which a significant number of applicants currently come, the commission said.
Several member states already designate countries they deem "safe" with regard to asylum, France's list for instance includes Mongolia, Serbia and Cape Verde.
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The EU effort aims to harmonise rules and ensure that all members have the same baseline.
States can individually add countries to the EU list, but not subtract from it.
'Misleading and Dangerous'
Asylum cases will still have to be examined individually, ensuring that existing safeguards remain in place and asylum-seekers are not rejected outright, the commission added.
The plan has to be approved by the European Parliament and member states before it can enter into force.
But it has already come under fire by human rights groups.
EuroMed Rights, an umbrella group, said some of the countries featured in the EU list suffered from "documented rights abuses and limited protections for both their own citizens and migrants".
"Labelling them 'safe' is misleading -- & dangerous", it wrote on X.
Irregular border crossings detected into the European Union were down 38 percent to 239,000 last year after an almost 10-year peak in 2023, according to EU border agency Frontex.
But led by hawks including Italy, Denmark and the Netherlands, EU leaders called in October for urgent new legislation to increase and speed up returns and for the commission to assess "innovative" ways to counter irregular migration.
Currently less than 20 percent of people ordered to leave the bloc are returned to their country of origin, according to EU data.
Last month the commission unveiled a planned reform of the 27-nation bloc's return system, which opened the way for member states to set up migrant return centres outside the EU.
Italy's interior minister Matteo Piantedosi Wednesday hailed the EU's latest move as "a success for the Italian government".
(With newswires)
