In some cases, you may be sent to another country without your asylum application being reviewed in substance.
Although states have the obligation to let you into the country for processing your asylum application, there are some exceptions – if another EU Member State is responsible for your application or your application is deemed inadmissible.
Dublin procedure
As an area without internal borders, the EU has rules to make sure that one Member State is responsible for one asylum application. For that purpose, Regulation 604/2013, also known as the Dublin Regulation, provides a hierarchy of criteria for identifying the responsible Member State. First preference is given to the states where a family member of the asylum-seeker is present, either as a beneficiary of international protection, or as an asylum-seeker.
important Family is defined very narrowly in the Dublin Regulation – it is limited to your spouse and minor children, or in case the applicant is a minor child, the parents or other adults responsible for the child. This means that the state where your siblings or adult children are present cannot usually be held responsible for your application based on the principle of family unity.
Otherwise, the core principle of the Dublin Regulation is that the responsibility for an asylum application lies with the Member State which played the greatest part in your entry to the EU – the state that issued you with entry documents, or in case of irregular entry, the state through which you first entered the EU.
example If you applied for a tourist visa in a Latvian Embassy, then travelled from Latvia to Germany and applied for asylum there, the German authorities will send you to Latvia to process your asylum application based on the Dublin Regulation (unless a close family member of yours is residing in Germany as an asylum-seeker, or as a beneficiary of international protection).
Inadmissible application
In addition, you may be sent back from the border if your asylum application is considered inadmissible for the following reasons:
- another country has already granted you international protection
- you arrived in Latvia through a country which can be considered a safe third country
- the application is subsequent and no new elements have been presented
- the application will be reviewed together with another family member’s application
If your application is considered inadmissible, you still have the right to be heard during a personal interview, except in the case of a repeated inadmissible application.
What human rights violation may there be?
It is possible that you arrived in the EU without entry documents through a country where the asylum system has serious deficiencies, which may put you at risk of violation of your right to life or freedom from torture or inhumane or degrading treatment. These violations may result from undignified living conditions or disregard for the non-refoulement principle (being sent back to the country where you are faced with persecution).
example In the case of M.S.S. v. Belgium and Greece, the European Court of Human Rights found that transferring the applicant to Greece from Belgium under the Dublin Regulation would result in a violation of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human rights (prohibition of torture and inhumane treatment), because the applicant would be exposed to detention and inhumane living conditions in Greece, as well as expulsion to Afghanistan without any serious examination of his asylum application.
It is also possible that your asylum application may be considered inadmissible because you arrived through a country which the authorities consider to be a safe third country, even though it is not.
example You escaped your country of origin, travelled through Russia, then arrived at a Latvian border crossing point and applied for international protection. The border guards refuse to accept your application claiming that Russia is a safe third country. This is a violation – Administrative District Court has noted that according to EU law only because it was possible for the asylum seeker to travel through a non-EU country legally, does not mean that this country can automatically be considered a safe third country. Before declaring your asylum application inadmissible the authorities must prove why this specific country is safe for you.
How to complain
If you do not agree with the decision to be sent to another country, you have the right to an effective remedy before a court. Read more about how to complain.