La nozione di «Paese di origine sicuro» e il suo impatto sulle garanzie per i richiedenti protezione internazionale in Italia

The present article examines the policy and legal issues arising from the introduction of the notion of “safe country of origin” in the examination of applications for international protection in the Italian legal system. After clarifying the criteria for the future designation in the list of safe countries and the actual scope of the “presumption of protection”, it reviews the relevant provisions against the background of secondary EU legislation, the protection of fundamental rights under the EU Charter, and the international obligations flowing from the European Convention on Human Rights. The article highlights several critical issues of implementation (including the possibility of partial designation, the lack of reasons in the rejection decisions by administrative authorities, the short delays and time-frames of the accelerated procedure, the applicability of the notion to unaccompanied minors, and the weak guarantees of suspension pending a judicial appeal). It concludes with some critical remarks about the capacity of the notion of “safe country of origin” to contribute to the “efficiency” of the asylum procedure without severely limiting in practice the protection of fundamental guarantees in a framework of containment policies on migration.