This could affect activists and lead to an increase in rejections.
Starting June 12, new rules for reviewing asylum applications will take effect in the European Union. Russia has been included on the list of countries whose citizens may be sent to an accelerated procedure. According to The Insider, this could affect the quality of case reviews and lead to a rise in rejections.
The new EU regulation makes accelerated processing mandatory for certain categories of applicants. One of the grounds is citizenship of a country for which the average rate of granting international protection in the EU is 20% or lower. For Russia, that figure is 18.1%.
In some cases, applications may be reviewed under a border procedure, immediately after screening at the EU border. The review period may be shortened to three months.
The European Union Agency for Asylum says each application must still be examined individually. However, human rights advocates warn that the accelerated procedure may increase the number of rejections and harm Russians facing political risks, including activists, anti-war citizens, deserters, journalists, human rights defenders, “foreign agents,” and LGBT people.
Politician Andrei Pivovarov, on behalf of the “Consuls” of the Anti-War Committee, asked the EU to prepare separate recommendations for Russia so that such categories of applicants would not be sent to accelerated or border procedures. Human rights advocate Darya Dadli said the new EU rules are “a victory of absurdity over common sense, complete disregard for human lives and human dignity.”