1. A third country may only be designated as a safe third country where in that country:
(a) non-nationals’ life and liberty are not threatened on account of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion;
(b) non-nationals face no real risk of serious harm as defined in Article 15 of ;
(c) non-nationals are protected against refoulement in accordance with the Geneva Convention and against removal in violation of the right to protection from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment as laid down in international law;
(d) the possibility exists to request and, where conditions are fulfilled, receive effective protection as defined in Article 57.
2. The designation of a third country as a safe third country both at Union and national level may be made with exceptions for specific parts of its territory or clearly identifiable categories of persons.
3. The assessment of whether a third country may be designated as a safe third country in accordance with this Regulation shall be based on a range of relevant and available sources of information, including information from Member States, the Asylum Agency, the European External Action Service, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the Council of Europe and other relevant international organisations.
4. The concept of safe third country may be applied:
(a) where a third country has been designated as safe third country at Union or national level in accordance with Article 60 or 64; or
(b) in relation to a specific applicant where the country has not been designated as safe third country at Union or national level, provided that the conditions set out in paragraph 1 are met with regard to that applicant.
5. The concept of safe third country may only be applied provided that:
(a) the applicant cannot provide elements justifying why the concept of safe third country is not applicable to him or her, in the framework of an individual assessment;
(b) one of the following conditions is met:
(i) there is a connection between the applicant and the third country concerned on the basis of which it would be reasonable for him or her to go to that country;
(ii) the applicant has transited through the third country concerned on the way to the Union; or
(iii) there is an agreement or an arrangement concluded between the Union, one or more Member States or one or more Member States and third countries, on the one hand, and the third country concerned, on the other hand, requiring the examination of the merits of any requests for effective protection made in the third country concerned by applicants covered by that agreement or arrangement.
Where the Commission enters into negotiations for an agreement on behalf of the Union with a third country (“Union-level agreement”) with a view to concluding an agreement as referred to in the first subparagraph, point (b)(iii), it shall take any existing bilateral or multilateral agreements between the Member States and the same third country into account in the course of the negotiations, including the potential impact of the Union-level agreement on those bilateral or multilateral agreements and on the Member States’ cooperation with that third country in the field of migration.
An agreement concluded by the Union and a third country falling within the scope of the first subparagraph, point (b)(iii), shall take precedence over any bilateral or multilateral agreements or arrangements concluded between individual Member States and the same third country, in so far as their provisions are incompatible with those of that Union-level agreement.
A Member State shall, at an appropriate time, inform the relevant Member States of negotiations on an agreement or arrangement as referred to in the first subparagraph, point (b)(iii), with a third country that shares a common border with those Member States.
Member States shall inform the Commission and the other Member States of any bilateral or multilateral agreements or arrangements concluded in accordance with the first subparagraph, point (b)(iii), prior to their entry into force, or, where an agreement or arrangement is to be applied provisionally, before the beginning of its provisional application. The Commission and the other Member States shall also be informed of any subsequent changes to, or the termination of, such agreements or arrangements.
6. A third country may only be considered to be a safe third country for an unaccompanied minor where it is not contrary to his or her best interests and where the authorities of Member States have first received from the authorities of the third country in question the assurance that the unaccompanied minor will be taken in charge by those authorities and that he or she will immediately have access to effective protection as defined in Article 57. Member States shall not apply paragraph 5, first subparagraph, point (b)(iii), where the applicant is an unaccompanied minor.
7. Where the Union and a third country have jointly come to an agreement pursuant to Article 218 that migrants admitted under that agreement will be protected in accordance with the relevant international standards and in full respect of the principle of non-refoulement, the conditions of this Article regarding safe third-country status may be presumed fulfilled without prejudice to paragraphs 5 and 6.
8. Where an application is rejected as inadmissible as a result of the application of the concept of safe third country, the determining authority shall:
(a) inform the applicant in accordance with Article 36; and
(b) provide him or her with a document informing the authorities of the third country in question, in the language of that country, that the application has not been examined in substance in the Union as a consequence of the application of the concept of safe third country, without prejudice to the application of different procedures for informing the authorities of the third country set out in agreements or arrangements already in place between the Union or that Member State and the third country concerned, as referred to in paragraph 5, first subparagraph, point (b)(iii).
9. Where the third country in question does not admit or readmit the applicant to its territory, the applicant shall have access to the procedure in accordance with the basic principles and guarantees provided for in Chapter II and in Section I of Chapter III.
Correlation table
| Directive 2013/32/EU | This Regulation |
| Article 25(6), second subparagraph, point (c) | Article 59(5) and (6) |
| Article 25(6), second subparagraph, point (d) | — |
| Article 26 | — |
| Article 38(1) | Article 59(1) |
| — | Article 59(2) |
| — | Article 59(3) |
| Article 38(2), point (a) | Article 59(5), point (b) |
| — | Article 59(4) |
| Article 38(2), point (b) | — |
| Article 38(2), point (c) | Article 59(5) |
| — | Article 59(6) |
| — | Article 59(7) |
| Article 38(3) | Article 59(8) |
| Article 38(4) | Article 59(9) |