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Asylum/Immigration

Answer

The European Commission has recently launched a comprehensive evaluation process to cover all aspects of the Dublin arrangements, including the operation of the secure electronic communications network for Dublin II requests (““DubliNet””) and the supporting Eurodac fingerprint database. The resulting report, expected in 2006, will analyse the impact of the Dublin arrangements to draw conclusions on the added value of Dublin II and the Eurodac Regulation EC No. 2725/2000.The second Annual Report to the Council and the European Parliament on the activities of the Eurodac Central Unit concluded that Eurodac represents an extremely important tool for a faster and more efficient application of the Dublin arrangements. The report also notes that Eurodac data provide a sound indicator of the phenomenon of ““asylum shopping”” in member states. Copies of the report can be found in the Libraries. The Home Office's assessment of the report is set out in Explanatory Memorandum 10464/05 sent to the Parliamentary Scrutiny Committees on 14 September 2005.Our own assessment of the new Dublin arrangements, supported by Eurodac is favourable. Dublin II and Eurodac enabled us to return 1,982 applicants in 2004 to other European countries without considering their claims ourselves. This is far more effective than the gentleman's agreement which applied until 1997, under which fewer people were removed in a year than the Dublin arrangements have enabled us to remove in a month. While it is not possible to prove to what extent asylum shopping that would otherwise have happened is not happening as a result of the new arrangements, asylum intake across the EU15 has fallen by 21 per cent. between 2003 and 2004 (source IRSS).On the question of refugees in orbit, the Dublin II Regulation is based on a mechanism to identify the member state responsible for determining an asylum claim and provides guarantees that identified state will take charge of or take back an asylum seeker within prescribed time limits. In addition, unlike the old Dublin Convention, the regulation reflects the agreement that member states fully accept to take responsibility for an asylum applicant where a procedural time limit is breached. This ensures that asylum applicants do not face prolonged periods of uncertainty.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

20269; 439 c334W;439 c334W

Session

2005-06

Subjects

Databases Asylum EU countries EU law Refugees Dublin regulations

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk