The Dublin Regulation

The basic principle of the Dublin Regulation is that an asylum seeker who comes to an EU country, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway or Switzerland has the right to have their application examined – but only in one country. The fingerprints of an asylum seeker are therefore checked in the Eurodac European database, which contains the fingerprints of all persons who have applied for asylum in one of these countries.

If a person applying for asylum in Sweden has applied for asylum in any other country covered by the Dublin Regulation, they may need to go back there to have their application examined in that country. This may also apply if the person has previously been granted an entry visa or has certain types of residence permits in one of these countries.

In some cases, it is also possible to have your application examined in another country if you want to be reunited with family members who are already there. If you have a family in Sweden, this may thus be a reason for the Swedish Migration Agency to decide that your application should be examined in Sweden, even if you have previously applied for asylum in another country.

An application that must be processed in accordance with the Dublin Regulation

The processing of an asylum application in accordance with the Dublin Regulation means that the Swedish Migration Agency will not investigate the person’s grounds for asylum, but will first investigate which country will be responsible for examining the application.

During their application interview, the asylum seeker is given the opportunity to explain why their application should be examined in Sweden and what they think about the possibility that the application may need to be examined in another country.

After this interviw, the Swedish Migration Agency decides whether anything has emerged that means the person’s application must be examined in Sweden. If no such reasons exist, the Swedish Migration Agency sends a so-called request for transfer to the country responsible for investigating the person’s grounds for asylum.

If the other country accepts its responsibility for an asylum application, this means that the person will have their rights as an asylum seeker met there. The Swedish Migration Agency then decides to reject the application and that the person should be transferred to that country.

A decision on transfer to another country means that the asylum seeker must travel there immediately. The decision can be appealed within three weeks, and it can also be requested that the transfer be halted, pending the court’s decision.

Where the Dublin Regulation applies

The Dublin Regulation applies in these countries:

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.