The European Union has listed several countries it deems safe for migrants to return to in a bid to speed up asylum applications – a decision which has sparked criticism from rights groups.
Those applying for asylum in the listed countries will be granted expedited processing within a three-month deadline.
The countries identified as safe include Kosovo, Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Morocco, Colombia and Tunisia.
The European Commission said the list would be subject to change and can be expanded or reviewed and countries added or removed from the list.
An EU official added that migrants from these countries are rarely accepted as refugees in the EU, with recognition rates equal or lower than five percent.
This comes after a pact on migration and asylum was agreed last year, however, the EU wants to accelerate processing as the pact does not come into force until June 2026.
Last year, EU leaders called on the Commission to find solutions to accelerate migrant returns, after EU figures said under 20 percent of people ordered to leave were sent back to their countries of origin.
Criticism of the ‘safe’ list
Some rights groups have criticised the decision, citing human rights concerns.
Hussein Baoumi, a foreign policy expert at Amnesty International in Brussels commented on the list saying: "The concept of safe countries may lead to discrimination among refugees based on their nationality and detract from an individualized assessment".
"The EU must ensure that groups at specific risk in each country, for example political opponents, LGBTI individuals, journalists and human rights defenders are clarified, while also enhancing engagement with listed countries to address human rights concerns," he added.
The Euro-Med human rights monitor said it was misleading and dangerous to designate the seven countries as safe, as they included "countries with documented rights abuses and limited protections for both their own citizens and migrants".
The list must still be approved by the European Parliament and EU member governments.
The development has also been hailed by Giorgia Meloni's right-wing government, with the interior minister saying it is a success for Rome that Bangladesh, Egypt and Tunisia were on the list, in the face of "purely ideological political opposition".
This comes after Italian judges blocked Meloni's proposal to send Egyptian and Bangladeshi migrants to detention centres in Albania, because while the government in Rome considered their countries as safe, the European Court of Justice said they could not be seen as safe if all their regions and minorities were not.