In fresh months, the institutions of the European Union have approved 2 complementary solutions for the migration pact. They are intended to harmonise and accelerate associate States' decisions on granting global protection to migrants. The first is simply a fresh EU-wide list of safe countries of origin, including Bangladesh, Egypt and Tunisia. The second is to amend the concept of a safe 3rd country. The evaluation of the 2 projects divides the Polish parliamentarians.
– We have safe countries of origin from which a migrant comes, seeking global protection. We besides have a safe 3rd country, that is to say, 1 through which a migrant passes, entering the country of the European Union. If a migrant applies for global protection, the Union shall see whether he comes from a safe country or has travelled through a safe 3rd country. Depending on this, it can be sent to both a safe country of origin and a safe 3rd country, which is very detailed in the Regulation – explains Michał Wawrykiewicz, associate of the European Parliament from the Civic Coalition and the EPP in an interview with Newseria Agency.
The EU list of safe countries of origin includes Bangladesh, Colombia, Egypt, India, Kosovo, Morocco and Tunisia. The EU-wide list will aid velocity up the examination of asylum applications submitted by citizens of these countries. In principle, their conclusions will most likely not be considered positively. In accordance with the fresh rules, it will be incumbent on the applicant to prove that this rule should not apply to him due to a legitimate fear of persecution or the hazard of serious harm in the event of a return to the country of origin.
According to data from the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA), asylum applications submitted by citizens of 7 countries included in the list accounted for a full of 16% of all applications submitted last year. The designation rates in EU+ countries (27 associate States + Norway and Switzerland) for these groups ranged from 2% to 6%.
Candidate countries in the EU may in rule be considered safe countries of origin unless there is an armed conflict or serious human rights violations on their territory. The Community may not qualify as a list if it has taken restrictive measures against them on matters relating to fundamental rights and freedoms.
The list of the European Union is simply a minimum common standard that individual associate States can extend.
"The migration regulation is not an exclusive competence of either a associate State or the European Union. On the 1 hand, provision is needed at EU level to coordinate asylum policy and to velocity up, facilitate asylum procedures. On the another hand, the creation of lists of countries at the level of the associate States of the European Union is absolutely justified due to the fact that it is motivated by circumstantial circumstances in the country concerned. – says Michał Wawrykiewicz. – The EU associate States that make up these lists are regulated by EU law. If they are breached, there are appropriate mechanisms at the level of the EU institutions, including actions by the European Commission or the EU Court of Justice.
In turn, the concept of a safe 3rd country allows associate States of the European Union to reject an asylum application as unacceptable if applicants could get specified global protection in another non-EU country which is safe for them. This rule can be implemented if 1 of the 3 conditions occurs. The first is the link between the asylum seeker and the safe 3rd country. The second condition assumes that the applicant has transited a country safe from reaching the Union. The 3rd is that there is an agreement or agreement between a associate State and a 3rd country.
– Of course, the regulation is not so clear, each application for global protection is individually recognised. On the another hand, the criteria contained in the Regulation which is part of the migration pact supply that in specified a situation a individual applying for global protection may be returned to the safe 3rd country through which the individual was passing – explains the Euro MP from the EPP.
– To date, the European Union has created a list of safe countries to which persons illegally residing in its territory could be deported. They usually included countries that respected democracy, human rights, in which dissidents or journalists were frequently in no danger – says Robert Biedron, associate of the European Parliament from fresh Left and S&D. – Unfortunately, this list has been extended to countries where journalists, human rights defenders are being persecuted and the European Union will be able to deport people to those countries where they are in danger. This is simply a very bad precedent which threatens not only these people but besides the credibility of the Community.
According to data from the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA), in 2025 EU+ countries received around 822,000 applications for global protection. This means a decrease of 19% compared to 2024. The Agency points out that this consequence is the consequence of less requests from Syrians, Bangladeshi citizens and Turkey. Last year, however, the number of requests made by Afghan citizens, mainly women already present in the EU+, and Venezuelans due to expanding tensions in the country, increased. Germany, France, Spain, Italy and Greece are the countries with the highest number of asylum applications. They are liable for 80 percent of them.
