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What do Bangladesh, Colombia, Egypt, India, Kosovo, Morocco, Tunisia and the EU candidate-countries have in common? They are all now considered by the EU to be "safe" countries. What this means is that asylum seekers from these countries will have their applications processed more quickly, and – if rejected – will be deported more quickly.
On 10 February, thanks to an alliance between the right and the far right, the European Parliament definitively adopted two texts tightening the bloc's migration policy: one establishing a list of safe countries, and the other allowing asylum seekers to be sent back to countries of which they are neither residents nor citizens.
For some critics, the acceleration of asylum procedures risks obscuring the individual needs of migrants. Moreover, outsourcing migration could result in asylum seekers being sent to countries with which they have no connection.
Contrary to the restrictive measures adopted by the European Parliament, Spain approved a plan at the end of January to regularise the status of 500,000 undocumented migrants, in particular those who entered for economic reasons.
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