European lawmakers voted Tuesday to approve new immigration policies that allows nations to deny asylum and deport migrants because they either hail from a country designated safe or could apply for asylum in a country outside the 27-nation bloc.
The vote at European Parliament in Strasbourg, France ratified a decision in December in Brussels when ministers across the EU agreed to a list of safe countries. The new rules would come into effect in June and allow for sending back not only asylum-seekers from those countries, but also third-country nationals who only transited through those countries before reaching Europe.
