Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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322. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality if she has recently reviewed the designation of South Africa as a safe country for asylum applicants; the number of other EU Member States that have designated South Africa as a safe country; the criteria used in evaluating safe-country status; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [38501/24]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Under the International Protection Act the Minister for Justice may make an order designating a country as a safe country of origin. A country may only be designated as a safe country of origin where satisfied it can be shown that there:

• is generally and consistently no persecution; • no torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; and • no threat by reason of indiscriminate violence in situations of international or internal armed conflict.

A country that has been designated under section 72 as a safe country of origin shall, for the purposes of the assessment of an application for international protection, be considered to be a safe country of origin in relation to a particular applicant only where— ?(a) the country is the country of origin of the applicant, and ?(b) the applicant has not submitted any serious grounds for considering the country not to be a safe country of origin in his or her particular circumstances and in terms of his or her eligibility for international protection.

If an applicant for international protection is from a country designated as a safe country of origin, their application will still receive a full consideration on its merits by the International Protection Office.

I can inform to the Deputy that in making the assessment to designate a country as safe, it is considered, among other things, the extent to which protection is provided against persecution or mistreatment by:

• The relevant laws and regulations of the country and the manner in which they are applied. • The observance of the rights and freedoms laid down in specified European and International Conventions. • Respect for the principle of non-refoulement in accordance with the Geneva Convention. • Provision for a system of effective remedies against violation of those rights and freedoms. The assessment is based on a range of sources of information, including from other EU Member States, the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA), the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the Council of Europe and other international organisations as? appropriate.

In accordance with the Act I keep the situation in the designated countries under review.

My Department does not comment on immigration matters outside of our jurisdiction, other than to note that there are variations in the patterns of international protection application across Member States and each Member State puts in place arrangements to take account of this, including in its approach to the designation of safe countries.

I would further note that, under the EU Asylum and Migration Pact, there will be a common EU Safe country list that will remove the need for Member States to individually designate countries as safe. However, it will still be open to Member States to designate additional countries outside the common list.