Explainer: What is a ‘safe’ country?

This week Minister for Justice Helen McEntee announced that five more countries have been added to the list of safe countries.

They are Egypt, Morocco, India, Brazil and Malawi, and their addition has implications for anyone coming from there to Ireland seeking asylum.

There were already 10 countries on the list that has changed and grown in recent years.

So why these countries, and why now? And what does ‘safe’ mean in the context of the International Protection process?

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Sorcha Pollak has been looking into what this means for new arrivals and for Ireland’s system of assessing refuge applications.

Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Declan Conlon.