THE EUROPEAN UNION has published a list of seven countries it considers “safe”, in a bid to speed up migrant returns by making it harder for citizens of those nations to claim asylum in Europe.

The European Commission said it was proposing to designate Kosovo, Bangladesh, Colombia, Egypt, India, Morocco and Tunisia as “safe countries of origin”.

The move, criticised by rights groups, is set to allow EU governments to process asylum applications filed from citizens of those countries more quickly – by introducing a presumption that such claims lack merit.

“Many member states are facing a significant backlog of asylum applications, so anything we can do now to support faster asylum decisions is essential,” said Magnus Brunner, the EU’s commissioner for migration.

Brussels has been under pressure to clamp down on irregular arrivals and facilitate deportations, following a souring of public opinion on migration that has fuelled hard-right electoral gains in several countries.

Today, the commission said EU candidate nations would also in principle meet the criteria to be designated as safe countries.

But it also laid out exceptions, including when they are hit by a conflict — something that would for example exclude Ukraine.

The EU had already presented a similar list in 2015 but the plan was abandoned due to heated debates over whether or not to include Turkey, another candidate for membership.

The list published today can be expanded or reviewed over time and was drawn up looking at nations from which a significant number of applicants currently come, the commission said.

Several member states already designate countries they deem “safe” with regard to asylum – France’s list for instance includes Mongolia, Serbia and Cape Verde.

The EU effort aims to harmonise rules and ensure that all members have the same baseline.

States can individually add countries to the EU list, but not subtract from it.

In Ireland, 15 countries are currently considered safe – including four of the seven countries on the EU’s list.

Other countries from which aplicants receive accelerated procedures in Ireland include Algeria, Brazil, Georgia, Serbia and South Africa.

The number of people applying for international protection in Ireland has fallen so far this year, dropping by more than 40% over the first three months of the year compared to the same period in 2024.

The total number of applications made between January and March 2025 stood at 3,021, compared to 5,162 during the first three months of last year.

Weekly arrival figures have been falling since October.

According to Ipas records, there are currently 33,007 asylum seekers in Ireland’s system.

Most are housed in the 49 Ipas centres across the country, while others are staying in emergency accommodation, the national reception centre, the Citywest Transit Hub, or one of four tented sites.

‘Misleading and Dangerous’

Asylum cases will still have to be examined individually, ensuring that existing safeguards remain in place and asylum-seekers are not rejected outright, the commission added.

The plan has to be approved by the European Parliament and member states before it can enter into force.

But it has already come under fire by human rights groups.

EuroMed Rights, an umbrella group, said some of the countries featured in the EU list suffered from “documented rights abuses and limited protections for both their own citizens and migrants”.

“Labelling them ‘safe’ is misleading – and dangerous”, it wrote on X.

Irregular border crossings detected into the European Union were down 38% to 239,000 last year after an almost 10-year peak in 2023, according to EU border agency Frontex.

But led by Italy, Denmark and the Netherlands, EU leaders called in October for urgent new legislation to increase and speed up returns and for the commission to assess “innovative” ways to counter irregular migration.

Currently less than 20% of people ordered to leave the bloc are returned to their country of origin, according to EU data.

Last month the commission unveiled a planned reform of the 27-nation bloc’s return system, which opened the way for member states to set up migrant return centres outside the EU.

Italy’s interior minister Matteo Piantedosi hailed the EU’s latest move as “a success for the Italian government”.

Italy’s hard-right government, led by Giorgia Meloni, has vowed to cut irregular migration, but a flagship policy to operate migrant centres in Albania has hit a series of legal roadblocks and delays.

Italian judges have repeatedly refused to sign off on the detention in Albania of migrants intercepted by Italian authorities at sea, ordering them to be transferred to Italy instead.

Italy has hoped that migrants from safe countries could be sent to the Albanian centres before being repatriated, but legal wrangling over which countries were considered “safe” had held up the scheme.

The government twice modified its safe list but Italian courts had referred legal questions to the European Court of Justice, which has yet to weigh in.

Piantedosi said the EU’s proposed regulation allows for fast-track border procedures “such as those provided in Albania” to potential asylum seekers from countries whose right-of-asylum rate is less than 20%.

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