The European Commission presented its first list of ‘safe’ countries of origin on Wednesday for the purposes of asylum, providing a list of states from which those applying for asylum will be subject to expedited processing within a three-month deadline.

The Commission considers that all candidate countries meet the criteria to be designated as safe countries of origin, with the temporary exception of Ukraine due to the ongoing war in its territory. That means Albania, Bosnia, Georgia, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Turkiye are all on the list. Seven others join them: Kosovo, Bangladesh, Colombia, Egypt, India, Morocco and Tunisia. 

Migrants from all these countries are rarely accepted as refugees in the European Union, with recognition rates equal or lower than 5%, an EU official said. 

The European list has now to be approved by the Parliament and Member States, but it is not meant to replace national lists.

Indeed, many EU countries have their own lists of safe countries of origin, whose citizens are subject to accelerated asylum procedures.

For example, Italy’s list encompasses 19 countries, including Ghana, Senegal, and Algeria. Germany currently lists nine countries, but the incoming government wants to significantly expand it by including Algeria, India, Morocco, and Tunisia.

The Commission says its common list will encourage convergence among member states’ national lists. The Commission list might also feature in future proposals on the issue, to streamline the designation of safe countries of origin, said the EU official.

The EU list of safe countries of origin is also “dynamic”, meaning that countries can be removed or new countries can be included. The Commission will regularly review conditions of each country in the list, the official said, adding: “The fact that a country is not in the list now does not mean that this country is necessarily not safe.”

Designation of safe countries of origin has proved controversial.

In various member states, courts have blocked the deportation of a migrant or the handling of their asylum application under an accelerated procedure, on the grounds that their country of origin could not be determined safe.

Italy and Albania agreed for the former to send to centres in the latter asylum seekers from Bangladesh and Egypt, pending asylum assessments by Italian authorities under an accelerated procedure.

But the Italian courts blocked the transfers, referring the case to the EU Court of Justice, because it was unclear if the countries of origin could be considered wholly safe.

The Commission accounts for this problem in its list, offering member states the possibility to exclude parts of a safe country from the designation.

The concept of a safe country of origin differs from that of a safe third country, which is meant to designate non-EU countries where asylum seekers rejected from the EU may be deported.