These “safe countries” must meet several criteria: namely, to be democratic, respectful of human rights standards, and devoid of indiscriminate violence (Annex 1 of Procedures Directive 2013/32/EU). Although there is no common EU list of “safe countries of origin,” the 2005 Asylum Procedures Directive and its 2013 recast allow Member States to establish their own national list. Since 2005, the concept of “safe country of origin” has been institutionalized in the Common European Asylum System (CEAS), a package of legislation designed to harmonize asylum policies throughout the EU. This list made Greece the 21st EU Member State to use the “safe country of origin” concept 1. One of the instruments introduced by this reform was the concept of “safe country of origin,” which led to the establishment of an official list of such countries in early 2020. This took the form of a new law on asylum that was passed in November 2019. Referring to asylum seekers, the Mayor of Athens and the Greek Prime Minister both promised to “bring order” to the country, leading to police operations in some districts of Athens and to the tightening of national asylum policies. In 2019, the local and general elections in Greece were won by candidates from the conservative New Democracy party. These practices permeate European asylum systems beyond the application of official lists, depriving many LGBTI+ asylum seekers of their right to have their protection claims fairly assessed. Based on a qualitative document analysis of EU “safe country” policies and on interviews with organizations supporting LGBTI+ asylum seekers, this article shows that despite the implementation of gender-sensitive safeguards, LGBTI+ asylum seekers are particularly affected by “safe country” practices. In light of this, there is a need to examine the impact of “safe country” practices on LGBTI+ claimants and to investigate the extent to which the securitization of European borders is compatible with LGBTI+ inclusion.
In consequence, the generalization of a policy that has been documented as largely detrimental to asylum seekers has been accompanied by the development of special guarantees for LGBTI+ asylum seekers. Yet, in the reform of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS), which began in 2016, the European Commission proposed two changes: first, that a common list of “safe countries” should be applied in all Member States, and second, that this concept should be interpreted in a “gender-sensitive” manner. The concept of “safe country” was initially blind to gender-based violence. For nationals of these countries, asylum claims are treated in an accelerated way, the underlying objective of the “safe country” designation being to facilitate the rapid return of unsuccessful claimants to their country of origin. 2Centre de Recherches Politiques de Sciences Po, Sciences Po, Paris, FranceĮU Member States may legally designate a country as a Safe Country of Origin when human rights and democratic standards are generally respected.1School of International Studies, University of Trento, Trento, Italy.
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