EU: New Rules on Asylum and ‘Safe Countries’ Undermine the Foundation of Refugee Protection

Reacting to the agreements between the European Parliament and Council on new EU asylum rules, which undermine the very foundation of refugee protection, Olivia Sundberg Diez, the EU Advocate on Migration and Asylum at Amnesty International said:

“This is an unprecedented attack on asylum in the EU, which must be understood in the context of a vast array of punitive deportation measures, still under negotiation. This shameless attempt to sidestep international legal obligations further shifts EU responsibility for refugee protection to countries outside Europe and is far from a humane migration policy that upholds people’s dignity.

“Changes to the ‘safe third country’ concept will mean that people seeking asylum in the EU may see their applications rejected without review, they could be sent to countries to which they have no connection and may have never set foot in before. Today’s agreement marks an abdication from the EU’s commitment to refugee protection and paves the way for EU member states brokering agreements with third countries for the offshore processing of asylum claims.

“Today’s deal also introduces an EU-wide list of countries of origin that are considered ‘safe’, placing a burden on people seeking asylum to prove otherwise. This undermines the individual assessment of protection claims, and raises yet another hurdle in the legal maze that will undoubtedly see people at risk denied the protection they need.”

Background

On December 18, the European Parliament and Council agreed on proposed rules amending the ‘safe third country’ concept in the EU Asylum Procedures Regulation, as well as introducing an EU-wide ‘safe countries of origin’ list.

The rules will make it easier for member states to apply the ‘safe third country’ concept to reject asylum applications as inadmissible, without an examination of their merits, and to forcibly transfer people seeking safety to countries to which they have no connection, or that they may have only transited through. These rules will apply from June 2026, alongside the rest of the Pact on Migration and Asylum.

The new EU-wide list of safe countries of origin includes Bangladesh, Colombia, Egypt, Kosovo, India, Morocco and Tunisia, as well as EU accession candidate countries (with exceptions). Nationals from these countries will be presumed not to be in need of protection and will be channeled through an accelerated asylum procedure, detracting from an individualized assessment of their claims. Provisions expanding the designations of ‘safe countries of origin’ may apply immediately.