The European Court of Justice just opened up asylum for the rest of the World

The European Court of Justice ruled today that immigration of asylum seekers must be widened, kept open for large parts of the World and must be submitted to stricter rules for refusal or when considering a safe origin.

The main point of today’s judgement is that EU member states must consider a country to be safe only if all of its population, every part of its population is safe. Eg if homosexuals face persecution, the country as a whole is not safe and asylum is available to every citizen of that country. Citizens of safe countries will be refused by definition, unless the person in question can prove that he is persecuted. Safe country citizens have only very restricted rights till their case is decided in a rapid procedure and may even be held in specific camps that may be outside of the country (Italy). Citizens of unsafe countries can migrate to the EU and have the right to a lengthy asylum procedure, with all rights attached, financial subsidies, right to work, family unification.

The new judgement is considered to make it more difficult for EU countries to refuse asylum seekers based on the safe country definition and may open the door to increased mass immigration of individuals who will then enjoy lengthy asylum decision procedures of overcharged administrations of the EU member states even though they are citizens of safe countries.