On Tuesday 20 May, several NGOs criticised the Commission’s new proposal to make the Safe Third Country (STC) concept more flexible, in order to make it easier for Member States to designate third countries capable of handling an asylum application deemed inadmissible (see EUROPE 13644/9).
For the NGO PICUM, “extending the Safe Third Country concept is a blow to people seeking protection and a means of subsistence in Europe. We can expect families to be separated and people to be deported without proper judicial oversight to places they don’t even know”.
The new ‘Safe Third Country’ proposals “are a cynical attempt to downgrade rights and offload asylum responsibilities”, says Amnesty International.
“Allowing a choice for Member States (who may or may not maintain a connecting link, editor’s note) reflects their different views - some of them have insisted on the removal of the connection criterion whereas some believe it is important and, in the case of France, it is a constitutional requirement. By providing three options, inconsistency will result”, warns the European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE).
“It will also be easier for EU Member States to issue a rejection on the basis of inadmissibility, by claiming that the person can receive protection in a supposed STC”, adds ECRE.
Link to ECRE’s analysis: https://aeur.eu/f/gxf (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)