The European Parliament voted today to usher in changes to European Union asylum rules that jeopardize the right to seek asylum.
It adopted an EU-wide list of “safe countries of origin” which means citizens from these countries will face an automatic presumption that they do not need protection and will be channeled into accelerated procedures that could overlook their individual circumstances; raising concerns about hasty and poor-quality decision making. In its World Report published last week, Human Rights Watch detailed human rights abuses in every country on the EU’s “safe countries of origin” list: Bangladesh, Colombia, Egypt, India, Kosovo, Morocco, Tunisia, and EU candidate countries such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Serbia, and Türkiye.
The “safe country of origin” concept is also problematic because it imposes a higher burden of proof on people fleeing persecution, who already often face difficulties providing evidence of the harm they are escaping. It raises a concrete risk that people will be sent to places where they face human rights violations.
Additionally, Parliament approved another measure to allow member states to send asylum seekers to “safe third countries” which they have no connection to without assessing their individual claims.
The EU has already shown its willingness to overlook authoritarian repression, as well as abuses against migrants and asylum seekers, in its cash-for-migration-control deals with Egypt and Tunisia, as well as Libya. It has likewise failed to challenge Georgian authorities amid their brutal crackdown.
The Parliament’s vote to expand the “safe third country” concept is potentially even more consequential. It paves the way for member states to abdicate their own responsibilities, deny people the chance to apply for asylum in the EU, and strike arrangements with willing countries where asylum seekers would be sent. It would mean dumping people in places where they have no cultural ties, family or community, and where their prospects for a fair asylum procedure and support for rebuilding their lives could be in doubt.
These measures are part of sweeping changes to EU asylum and migration policy geared to make it easier to reject asylum applications swiftly, shift responsibility to countries outside the EU, and increase deportations.
At a time when the rules-based international order is under threat, we need an EU that upholds core principles of international law such as the right to seek and receive asylum. Instead, we are witnessing the EU erode the international human rights infrastructure.
