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Determining Responsibility (Dublin)

The 'Dublin Regulation' establishes a hierarchy of criteria for identifying the EU Member State responsible for processing an asylum claim. Usually this will be the state through which the asylum seeker first entered the EU. The Regulation aims to ensure that each claim is examined by one Member State, to deter repeated applications, and to enhance efficiency.

Application of this regulation can seriously delay the presentation of claims, and can result in claims never being heard. Causes of concern include the use of detention to enforce transfers of asylum seekers from the state where they apply to the state deemed responsible, the separation of families, the denial of an effective opportunity to appeal against transfers, and the reluctance of Member States to use the sovereignty clause to alleviate these and other problems. The Dublin system also increases pressures on the external border regions of the EU, where states are often least able to offer asylum seekers support and protection.

The Dublin system impedes integration of refugees by delaying the examination of asylum claims, by creating incentives for refugees to avoid the asylum system and live ‘underground,' and by uprooting refugees and forcing them to have their claims determined in Member States with which they may have no particular connection.

 

ECRE's position
  • The Dublin system fails to ensure that refugees are protected and wrongly assumes that there is a level playing field in the EU.

  • The determination of the country responsible for a claim should not result in transfers to Member States that cannot both guarantee a full and fair hearing of asylum claims, and provide reception conditions that at the very least comply with the EU Reception Directive.

  • Applicants must have a right to remain in the country where they have requested asylum while appealing against transfer.

  • The definition of a family should be extended, and refugees should be able to join any family member lawfully present in the EU.

  • The Dublin system should allow Member States to prevent the transfer of vulnerable persons that may require specialised treatment.

  • ECRE has called for an immediate improvement of the system in practice. Ultimately the Dublin Regulation should be abolished and replaced by a more humane and equitable system that considers the connections between individual asylum seekers and particular Member States.