Asylum procedure: EU judgment draws limits for lists of safe countries of origin

With a judgment, the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) increases the hurdles for determining safe countries of origin for accelerated asylum procedures. The EU countries may only create such lists themselves if they disclose the sources for their assessment. In addition, the judges in Luxembourg decided that the entire population must be safe in the country.

The process dealt with Italy’s controversial “Albania model” for fast asylum procedures abroad. The determination of safe countries of origin is a basic requirement in order to implement the model.

Anyone who comes from a so -called safe state of origin and applying asylum in the EU can be rejected faster. EU countries can determine which states they see as safe. In its judgment, the ECJ now states that this assessment must be verifiable.

In addition, the judgment according to Member States – at least until the entry into force of a new EU asylum regulation – must not determine a third country as a “safe” state of origin if certain groups of people, such as homosexual people, are not safe there.

The background is Italy’s “Albania model”

In the specific case, which is based on the ECJ judgment, two people from Bangladesh complained against the rejection of their asylum applications because their country of origin of Italy was classified as safe. They were among those migrants brought to Albania by Italy in camp.

The basic idea of the “Albania model” is to examine asylum applications from male adult migrants who come from so-called safe countries of origin and are taken up on the Mediterranean in quick procedures abroad. In addition, Italy concluded an agreement with Albania to set up two camps on Albanian territory.

It is the prestige project of Italy’s right -wing government coalition under Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, but is currently on hold due to resistance in the Italian judiciary. According to a report by the human rights organization Actionaid and the University of Bari, the centers were only in operation in 2024 on five days – at very high costs.

Lawsuit of two refugees from Bangladesh

The two refugees from Bangladesh later came to Italy and went to court there. Because the Italian court was not certain whether the list of the safe countries of origin of the Italian government was compatible with EU law, it turned to the ECJ.

The judgment of the highest European court is also groundbreaking for Germany, confirms migration law expert Pauline Endres de Oliveira. Because Germany has also set a list of safe countries. In addition to the EU member states, it includes the Western Balkans countries as well as Georgia, Ghana, Moldova and Senegal. “The European requirements for the classification of safe countries of origin also apply here,” said Endres de Oliveira.

According to the right-wing expert, it is unclear whether and how it can continue with the “Albania model” after the decision. “There are still numerous legal issues that” stand in the room at the “Italy-Albania model”, explains the professor of the Humboldt University in Berlin. For example, whether the planned accommodation of asylum seekers in such centers is legally equivalent to a detention. That would be problematic, because under international law nobody should be detained without a legal reason – and an asylum application is not a reason for detention.