At a meeting of SCIFA (Strategic Committee on Immigration, Frontiers and Asylum) on Thursday 13 February, experts from the Member States will discuss how to improve the application of the ‘safe third country concept’ (STCC) at a time when the Commission is also planning to revise it, potentially at the same time as the revision of the current Returns Directive, currently scheduled for mid-March.
On the same day, the Member States will also be debating the future legislative framework on returns (see EUROPE 13576/3), which for some goes hand in hand with this revised ‘safe third country concept’.
In recent months, Member States, in particular around 15 of them, have focused on the personal link. They want to abolish this provision to make it easier to return people with an irregular immigration status in the EU to a third country with which they have no particular link (no family ties, no logistical support during their journey to the EU, etc.), to process their international asylum claims. Meanwhile, the Polish Presidency of the Council of the EU would like to see a broader discussion, also covering the usefulness for Member States of a common list of safe third countries. As a reminder, the application of this concept makes it possible to declare inadmissible certain asylum claims lodged in a country when that country considers that protection could also be obtained in a third country, qualified as safe, without having to carry out an examination on the merits.
“For the operationalisation of the STCC, it will be crucial to ensure that all the criteria to designate a third country as safe are met, and that rules regarding cooperation and mutual obligations with partner countries are set. Therefore, concluding appropriate agreements for the purposes of the implementation of the STCC might be considered”, the discussion note argues.
In this context, it is important that third countries strengthen their asylum systems and offer access to international protection. Pilot projects may also be set up, although the application of this safe third country concept, introduced into European legislation in 2005, has been limited to date.
With regard to the connection criterion, the Presidency stresses that it may, by its very nature, reduce “the scope of potential partner countries for handling asylum requests, as it may have the effect of limiting them mainly to those along migratory routes in the EU’s proximity”.
Cooperation with partner countries may result in secondary movements to the EU as a consequence of a negative decision in these third countries. “At the same time, any attempts to define the connection criterion, at national or Union level, will continue to be subject to the jurisdiction of national and EU courts. This could hamper the STCC’s full potential in case of a restrictive interpretation of the connection criterion”, suggests the Presidency.
The Commission also considers it “necessary to remove the existing restrictions in the definition of return to ensure that the transfer of an applicant to a safe third country is effectively implemented”. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)