K A R L A
H O O V E R
P U B L I C P O L I C Y M E E T S H U M A N R I G H T: A GAP STUDY OF THE DUBLIN REGULATION AND THE GREEK ASYLUM CRISIS
INTRODUCTION Europe has long been sought out as a destination for those seeking refuge from protracted conflicts and war in neighboring countries and continents. However, beginning in the early 1990s, many Western European governments began to take a restrictive approach to refugees. The European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE) attributes this turning point to an influx of refugees following the conflicts in the Balkans and the collapse of the communist regimes in Eastern Europe. 1 Indeed, in Western Europe the number of asylum applications was 150,000 in 1985, and by 1992 the number had risen sharply to more than 600,000. 2 This influx of refugees and immigrants into Europe has continued since the early 90’s, and contributed greatly to the waning European support for asylum seekers. In the past few years, the EU has received on average 1.8 million immigrants a year, 3 and Europe receives by far the most asylum applications out of any industrialized region. To put it into perspective, out of every 100 asylum seekers in the industrialized world, 68 seek protection in Europe. 4 In 2011, 301,300 asylum seekers were accepted into European countries. In the United States, it was 74,000. The creation of the Schengen Area and open borders within Europe only compounded the concerns about Europe’s growing responsibility to asylum seekers. Solutions to relieve the burden soon began to find their way into EU legislation. At the Tampere European Council in 1999, the EU committed itself to establishing a Common European Asylum System (CEAS). The principal aim was to restrict unfounded and multiple asylum claims, and harmonize asylum procedures throughout the EU. Among the legislation created to reach this goal was the Dublin Regulation. Under the criteria of this Regulation, only one Member State can be responsible for processing an asylum claim. This responsibility is determined based on a list of hierarchical criteria. The most applied (although not the first) is article 10.1, which places the burden on the Member State where the asylum seeker has irregularly entered the European Union. In theory, the Dublin Regulation was created to decrease the numbers of manifestly unfounded asylum claims in Member States, and to equally assure that every asylum claim is fairly processed in at least one State. In reality, it has placed an unfair burden on countries on Europe’s periphery, aggravated the disparities between Member States, and exacerbated difficult situations in border countries. More importantly, it has trapped 107