The European Union has identified seven countries it considers “safe third countries”, as part of proposals to fast-track deportations.
Migrants from Kosovo, Bangladesh, Colombia, Egypt, India, Morocco and Tunisia are unlikely to be granted asylum and should be sent home more quickly, the European Commission has said.
Overall, more than 200,000 people from these countries applied for asylum last year.
Applications by their citizens for international protection in the continent would be wrapped up within three months, rather than the usual six.
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More than 200,000 people from Kosovo, Bangladesh, Colombia, Egypt, India, Morocco and Tunisia applied for asylum in the European Union last year
Moreover, asylum applications by migrants coming from countries that are candidates to join the EU – Albania, Bosnia, Georgia, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey – would also be accelerated.
The plan must be endorsed by the EU’s 27 member states and the European Parliament before it can come into force.
Markus Lammer, the Commission's spokesman, said it would be a "dynamic list" that could be expanded or reviewed.
Non-EU countries could be suspended or removed from the list if they were no longer seen as safe, Mr Lammer added.
A year ago, Brussels endorsed sweeping reforms to the bloc’s failed asylum system, although it does not come into force until June 2026.
The rules were meant to resolve the issues that have divided the EU after more than one million migrants swept into Europe in 2015, most fleeing war in Syria and Iraq.
Among those who had pushed for reform was Italy, led by prime minister Giorgia Meloni, which has seen a big influx in small boats crossings since 2015.
In the meantime, the commission, led by president Ursula von der Leyen, is desperate to speed up procedures, including by deporting people more quickly, to ease pressure on migrant facilities.
“Many member states are facing a significant backlog of asylum applications, so anything we can do now to support faster asylum decisions is essential,” Magnus Brunner, the EU’s migration commissioner, said.
He insisted that each applicant would be assessed on a case-by-case basis, while being “subject to the scrutiny of national courts”, so migrants could appeal.
But EuroMed Rights — a network of 68 human rights organisations based in 30 countries across Europe and the Mediterranean — warned that it was misleading and dangerous to label the seven nations as safe.
They claim the EU’s list included "countries with documented rights abuses and limited protections for both their own citizens and migrants".
