EU countries may soon be able to find it easier to send asylum seekers to countries they did not come from, but that Europe deems “safe”.
It’s after a majority of MEPs in the European Parliament agreed to the move during a contentious debate today in Strasbourg, where they also sought to further tighten migration policy via the creation of a list of countries prohibiting people from seeking asylum in the EU.
The list – comprising Kosovo, Bangladesh, Colombia, Egypt, India, Morocco and Tunisia – was blasted by left-wing and left-of-centre groups as risking human rights breaches and putting people’s lives in danger.
The measures will now be forwarded to the European Council and, if brought into effect, would speed up the processing of asylum claims and accelerate returns for some from the listed countries.
Of Ireland’s 14 MEPs, three Fine Gael members – Seán Kelly, Regina Doherty and Nina Carberry – voted in favour of the safe countries proposal, and
Regina Doherty joined us on Teh Agenda this morning to talk to us in more detail about this.