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The European Union said on Thursday it would drastically reduce asylum claims from seven countries AfricaThe middle east And Asia Describing them as safe countries of origin, International Migrants Day sparked widespread outrage among human rights groups.
an agreement was reached between European Parliament and this European UnionOr the Group of 27 EU Heads of State stated that countries would be considered safe if they lack “contextual circumstances such as indiscriminate violence in the context of armed conflict”.
Asylum requests by people from Bangladesh, Colombia, Egypt, Kosovo, India, Morocco and Tunisia “will be fast-tracked, with applicants proving that this provision should not apply to them,” read the agreement’s announcement. “The list may be expanded in the future under the EU’s ordinary legislative procedure.”
In 2024, EU countries backed sweeping reforms to the bloc’s failing asylum system. The rules were meant to resolve issues that have divided the 27 countries as more than 1 million migrants flocked to Europe in 2015, the majority fleeing wars in Syria and Iraq.
Under the migration and asylum accord, which comes into force in June 2026, people can be deported to countries deemed safe, but not to countries where they face physical harm or persecution.
Amnesty International EU lawyer Olivia Sundberg Diez said the new measures were “a brazen attempt to circumvent international legal obligations” and would put migrants at risk.
French MEP Melissa Camara said that the original concept of safe countries and others agreed by the Council and Parliament “opens the door to return centers outside the EU’s borders, where third-country nationals sometimes face inhumane treatment with almost no monitoring” and “undoubtedly leads to thousands of people being deported in situations of danger.”
Celine Miass, EU director of the Danish Refugee Council, said “We are deeply concerned that this fast-track system will fail to protect those in need of protection, including activists, journalists and marginalized groups in places where human rights are clearly under attack.”
Alessandro Sirianni, an Italian MEP from the European Conservatives and Reformist Group, said the designation sends a strong message that the EU has tightened its borders.
“Europe wants enforceable rules and shared responsibility. This commitment must now materialize: effective returns, structured cooperation with third countries and real measures to support EU member states,” he said.
He said a clear delineation of safe and unsafe nations would rid the EU of “excessive interpretive uncertainty” that has caused a kind of paralysis for national decision makers on border controls.
These measures also allow individual countries within the bloc to designate other countries as safe for their own immigration purposes.