New Implementing Regulation sets out detailed rules on applying Dublin III

14 February

A new Implementing Regulation has entered into force providing detailed rules for the application of the Dublin III Regulation, which determines the Member State responsible for examining any asylum application lodged in the EU from 1 January 2014 onwards. The Recitals of the Implementing Regulation state that the Regulation is designed to ‘increase the efficiency of the [Dublin] system and improve the cooperation between national authorities’ by ensuring the ‘effective application’ by Member States of the Dublin III Regulation in practice.

The detailed rules cover the preparation required of States prior to requesting another State to assume responsibility for an asylum seeker, obligations in the case of delays in the procedure, the necessary consultation between States that host different members of the same family, required actions by States to identify the family of unaccompanied children seeking asylum, and the conditions and arrangements for exchanging data regarding the state of health of the asylum seeker before he or she is sent back to the state deemed responsible for examining the asylum application.

As required by the new ‘right to information’ introduced by the Dublin III Regulation, new common information leaflets on the Dublin Regulation for applicants seeking international protection are annexed to the Implementing Regulation.. Specific leaflets are also published for unaccompanied children, persons apprehended for an irregular crossing of an external border, and persons found to be illegally staying in a Member State.

The Dublin III Regulation entered into force in July 2013 and replaces the Dublin II Regulation.

This article originally appeared in the ECRE Weekly Bulletin of 14 February 2014
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