On Thursday, the German Bundestag shot down a proposal by the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP) that would add Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia as safe countries, which would allow asylum requests from these countries to be processed and rejected faster. The CDU, Christian Democratic Party headed by Angela Merkel, along with the Social Democratic Party, SPD didn't see the majority for the proposal in the parliament.    

The FDP also suggested that Georgia be added, but that proposal was also shot down.

A country can only be considered "safe" if migrants won't be threatened with torture, inhumane treatment or death if returned from Germany.  Currently, Germany's list of safe countries consists of all other EU states along with Balkan countries such as Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro, Albania and Kosovo. Sub-saharan African countries such as Ghana and Senegal are also included.

The SPD and the Green Party are against the proposal of classifying the Maghreb states as safe, particularly because LGBT migrants could possibly face torture if deported back there. They also argue that those countries might not take enough effort to protect women and girls against sexual assault and violence.        

14 more countries being considered "safe"   

The German press agency dpa revealed that the German authorities are currently looking at a further 14 countries and determining whether they are "safe." A treaty as part of the German government coalition says that countries can be considered "safe" if only under  5 percent of the asylum requests from those nations are accepted.

The following countries are being evaluated: Tanzania, Ukraine, Pakistan, Benin, Guinea-Bissau, the Central African Republic, Chad, Colombia, Cuba, Vietnam, India, Belarus, Kenya and Moldova.