The EU includes Colombia among the "safe countries" for the return of migrants

The European Union (EU) identified, in a list published Wednesday, seven "safe" countries, including Colombia. It is a step that limits citizens of those nations the possibilities of obtaining asylum in the bloc.

The seven countries considered safe as a point of origin are: Kosovo, Bangladesh, Colombia, Egypt, India, Morocco and Tunisia.

"The EU list of safe countries of origin may be expanded or revised over time. Countries can also be suspended or removed from the list if they no longer meet the criteria to be designated as a safe country of origin," the European Commission (EC) explained in a release.

In this regard, the EC specified that the designation as a safe country of origin does not establish a security guarantee for all nationals of that country. Therefore, he stressed that Member States must carry out an individual assessment of each asylum application, regardless of whether or not a person comes from a safe country of origin.

In a statement, European Commissioner for Migration Magnus Brunner noted that several EU states "face a significant backlog of asylum applications, so anything we can do to support faster asylum decisions is essential."

The adoption of the list on countries of origin deemed safe would allow national authorities to move more quickly on claims lodged by migrants of other nationalities.

The EU had already presented a similar list in 2015, but the plan was abandoned due to heated debates over whether or not to include Turkey.

Several countries in the European bloc were pressuring the European Commission (the EU's executive arm) to reduce the number of arrivals and facilitate removal processes for unaccepted migrants.

In response, the Commission in March presented a draft reform of the migrant return system, which opened the way for member states to set up migrant return centers outside the bloc.

Currently, less than 20% of migrants who are not accepted and must leave the bloc are returned to their country of origin, according to the EU's own data.