What is a safe third country for migrants?

LONDON - European lawmakers are reviewing a legal concept that allows asylum seekers to be transferred to a country other than the one where they made their application for protection as part of an overhaul of the bloc's migration rules.   

The review of the safe third country (STC) concept is part of the bloc's efforts to make offshoring asylum procedures to countries outside the European Union easier.

Despite a 38% drop in illegal migrant entries to the EU last year to the lowest level since 2021, immigration remains a highly contentious issue among the 27 member states.

Here is what you need to know about the STC concept.

What is a safe third country? 

In global asylum policies, governments receiving migrants consider a safe third country somewhere that asylum applicants can be transferred to seek protection through asylum.

The concept is used to reject applications as inadmissible on the grounds that they should be examined elsewhere.

The U.N. refugee agency UNHCR's guidelines recommend that an asylum seeker should have a connection to a safe third country and that this should not solely be based on whether they have transited through that land. 

But this recommendation is not mandatory under international law.

For example, Greece has dismissed thousands of asylum claims from people from Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Somalia who arrived from Turkey since it declared its neighbour to be a safe third country for those nationalities in 2021. 

A safe third country must be able to protect asylum seekers from forcible return to the country they have fled, according to UNHCR guidelines. 

Five EU countries - Estonia, Germany, Greece, Hungary and Ireland - as well as Switzerland have national lists of safe third countries.    

How does this concept relate to the New Pact on Migration and Asylum? 

The EU's New Pact on Migration and Asylum, agreed in late 2023 and coming into effect next year, aims to make asylum procedures more efficient, including by speeding up returns, and limit irregular arrivals to the bloc.

It loosens the standards for designating a safe third country and establishing a connection with a migrant.

The pact also states that if the bloc has come to an agreement with a third country to admit migrants, it will be considered safe.

The EU has brought forward its review of the STC concept, where third country refers to a country outside the EU, in tandem with an overhaul of legislation on returning migrants.     

The European Commission has proposed that member countries be allowed to set up centres in non-EU countries where migrants whose asylum claims were rejected would await deportation. The review is due to be concluded by June 12.   

It has also proposed fast-tracking the designation of safe third countries and safe countries of origin, with exceptions. 

This means countries could be determined as safe, with exceptions made for specific regions, or for certain categories of asylum seekers.

The EU's list of safe countries of origin includes Bangladesh, Colombia, India, Kosovo, Morocco, Egypt and Tunisia, and it can be expanded or reviewed over time.

European lawmakers are also considering a possible bloc-wide list of safe third countries. 

What do lawmakers want to achieve with the STC concept review?

The European parliament's biggest party and some member governments want to abolish the connection criteria for safe countries, paving the way for migrants to be sent to countries they have never stepped foot in.

The centre-right European People's Party also wants all illegal migrants to have their asylum claims processed in safe third countries and are urging the Commission to consider building reception centres in non-EU countries.

The party says this will act as a deterrent.

A similar plan by Britain's previous government to send migrants to Rwanda was widely criticised, including by the U.N. human rights chief, before it was scrapped by current Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who said "it's never been a deterrent." 

(Reporting by Beatrice Tridimas; Editing by Ayla Jean Yackley and Clar Ni Chonghaile)