Morocco, Tunisia, and Egypt: the list of "safe" countries where the EU wants to return migrants

BrusselsOne of the most delicate and complicated points to make effective European Union Migration and Asylum Pact is the return of irregular migrants to third countries. To date, the European Club has failed in its goal of expelling these new arrivals, and the percentage of successful returns remains very low, below 25%, according to Eurostat data. However, the European Club has long been determined to increase the number of irregular migrants it expels, and the European Commission on Wednesday presented a new, first list of countries it describes as "safe" to which it intends to send irregular migrants.

The list of "safe countries of origin" presented by Brussels includes all the candidate countries for EU membership—Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey, and Ukraine—as well as India, Morocco, and Tunisia. In fact, with countries such as Tunisia and Egypt, the European Commission of Ursula von der Leyen has already has closed multi-million dollar deals to stem the waves of migration to the European bloc in exchange for money, despite the fact that several NGOs and journalistic investigations have shown that these states repeatedly fail to comply with humanitarian law, especially in their treatment of migrants.

The proposal put forward by Brussels is not definitive, and now the EU Council—the institution that represents the member states—and the European Parliament will have to negotiate and ratify the regulations. Furthermore, community sources emphasize that this is a "dynamic list" and that it can be modified over time and, for example, certain regions can be removed from the countries in question or they can be removed temporarily and exceptionally if they are involved in armed conflict.

On the other hand, the EU executive, which has avoided holding a press conference on the controversial proposal as usual, will allow Member States to process asylum applications on a fast-track basis and with fewer safeguards from people arriving from countries where 20% of all asylum seekers of this nationality do not end up obtaining international protection in the EU. The objective, according to EU sources, is to make "applications that are likely unfounded" more "efficient."

"A success for the Italian government"

The far right was quick to celebrate Brussels' proposal, and one of the governments most pleased was that of Giorgia Meloni. "It's a success for the Italian government," declared Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi. In fact, Italy is one of the countries that has most pressured the European Commission to toughen migration policies, including the creation of centers outside the EU to deport migrants. In this regard, it's worth remembering that Brussels also announced last month that the government would be able to "remove migrants from their homes." opened the door to allowing member states build migrant camps outside the European bloc and follow in the footsteps of Meloni, who in this regard also has the support of EU leaders from the traditional right or even social democrats.