3.3.2. Safe country concepts

3.3.2. Safe country concepts

As part of the European Commission’s pilot project, Bulgaria started working toward the adoption of two lists with designated safe countries of origin and safe third countries.367 

Changes to the national lists of safe countries of origin took place in Belgium, which removed Georgia,368and in Denmark, which removed Russia369from their lists. In Czechia, Ukraine and exceptions for Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Transnistria were removed from the list, while Armenia, the United Kingdom and the whole of Georgia and Moldova were added as safe countries.370  

Greece proceeded with an annual review but concluded that no changes were needed.371 However, in the framework of a request for an annulment of the provisions designating Türkiye as a safe third country,372the Greek Council of State referred questions to the CJEU for a preliminary ruling. Greek national courts rejected the presumption of Türkiye as a safe third country for several individual cases throughout 2023.373 

In Germany, Georgia and Moldova were added to the list of safe countries of origin. The reasoning of the draft underlined that the recognition rate for both countries was below 0.1% in 2022 and the first half of 2023, and over 10% of all rejected applicants came from these countries.374  

For a full overview of EU+ countries which implement the concepts of safe country of origin, safe third country and European safe third country, please consult the Who is Who in International Protection in the EU+: Countries Applying the Concept of Safe Countries in the Asylum Procedure – interactive data visualisation and report.

Italy added Côte d’Ivoire, Georgia, Nigeria and The Gambia to the list of safe third countries by Decree of 17 March 2023.375The Association for Juridical Studies on Immigration (ASGI) expressed concerns about the designation of Nigeria, underlining that the recognition rate amounted to 41% based on data for January-September 2022.376Tunisia remained on the list and a joint declaration by civil society organisations drew attention to their findings on the increased repression of political opponents, civil society organisations and minorities in the country.377In individual cases, the tribunals in Catania and Florence found that Tunisia could not be considered as safe based on updated COI.
 
The Dutch IND examined whether several countries can be considered safe third countries. In January 2023, the IND considered that Colombia in general cannot be regarded as a safe third country due to the combination of a weak asylum system and the fact that the rights of asylum seekers and recognised refugees cannot be sufficiently guaranteed in practice.378In March 2023, the IND concluded that Mauritania can be regarded as a safe third country, given that the country has a functional asylum system, no cases of refoulement had been reported in recent years, and asylum seekers and refugees have the right to work and the same rights to social services, education and healthcare as Mauritanian citizens.379In October 2023, the IND decided that Djibouti can be regarded as a safe third country by concluding that there is access to the asylum procedure, where UNHCR acts as an observer in the processing of applications, and rights of access to education and healthcare are provided.380