In 2022, 163,000 decisions were issued in response to outgoing Dublin requests,xx  according to provisional data which are regularly exchanged between the EUAA and 29 EU+ countries.xxi  This represented an increase by more than two-fifths compared to 2021, resulting in the highest annual total since at least 2016. Since the second half of the year, the number of decisions steadily rose to an unprecedented level in December 2022. The increase in decisions coincided with a rise in asylum applications in EU+ countries during the same period.

Overall, the annual ratio of decisions received on Dublin requests to asylum applications lodged was 16%, on par with 2021. Although some decisions on Dublin requests concerned family reunion cases, the stable ratio of decisions to applications suggests that in 2022 an increased number of asylum seekers moved from the first country of arrival to another to lodge a new application (referred to as secondary movements), impacting asylum caseloads overall.

At the country level, Germany and France continued to receive the most decisions in response to their requests (see the left side of Figure 7), jointly accounting for over three-fifths of the EU+ total. Germany received almost two-thirds more responses than in 2021, whereas responses received by France rose by around one-seventh. Most other countries received more responses to Dublin requests in 2022, with the most notable relative increases in Spain, Norway, Cyprus, Austria, Portugal and Czechia (in descending order).xxii  In contrast, some countries received fewer responses in absolute terms, notably Greece, Ireland, Slovakia, Croatia, Romania and Malta (in descending order).

As in previous years, Italy issued the most decisions overall on Dublin requests. However, for the first time on record, Austria and Bulgaria emerged as second and third countries issuing the most decisions, overtaking Germany and Greece (see the right side of Figure 7). While Italy issued one-third more decisions than in 2021, decisions issued by Austria and Bulgaria almost tripled compared to the previous year, in fact, rising to the most in at least 6 years.

At lower levels, important relative increases also took place in Lithuania, Cyprus, Portugal, Croatia and Poland (in descending order).xxiii  Lithuania issued five times as many decisions as in 2021, decisions by Cyprus more than tripled, and decisions by Croatia, Poland and Portugal more than doubled from 2021. In contrast, fewer decisions were issued by Romania, Greece and Germany (ordered from largest to smallest absolute decrease).