The European Commission proposed to include Tunisia in a new list of so -called “safe origin” countries, which would also include countries such as Kosovo, Bangladesh, Colombia, Egypt, India and Morocco.
The European Commission proposed, Wednesday, April 16, 2025, to register, Tunisia in a first European list of safe countries of origin. This first list would include, according to a press release published on the official website of the Commission, Kosovo, Bangladesh, Colombia, Egypt, India, Morocco and Tunisia.
“The nationals of these countries will see their requests examined as part of an accelerated procedure or at the border,” adds the same source. The purpose of this list is to accelerate the processing of asylum requests from these countries. In practice, this would allow asylum seekers from these nations to have faster procedure, either at the border or within the framework of an accelerated procedure.
The reason behind this proposal is that the EU considers that the countries registered on this list are generally safe, because they have stable democratic institutions and respect human rights, the protection of minorities and the rule of law.
However, strict criteria are applied for a country to appear on this list. A country can be excluded if, for example, it is plunged into a violent conflict, if it is the subject of sanctions from the European Union, or if more than 20% of asylum requests from its nationals are accepted in the EU, which could indicate problems in the management of asylum requests.
It is also specified that this registration in the list of “safe” countries does not guarantee automatic rejection of asylum requests. Indeed, each request for asylum will be examined individually by the EU member states, even if it comes from a country deemed safe.
This proposal is part of a broader initiative of the European Commission within the framework of the European Pact on Migration and Asylum, a project aimed at improving the management of asylum requests on the EU scale.
The objective is to accelerate certain aspects of the asylum procedure regulations, in order to process requests that are unlikely to be accepted more quickly. This pact is intended to enter into force in June 2026, but the EU is already seeking to anticipate some of its key elements.
