3.2.3. Decisions on outgoing Dublin requests
Decisions on outgoing Dublin requests include decisions in response to take back requests (under Articles 18(1b-d) and 20(5) of the Dublin III Regulation) and take charge requests (under Articles 8-16 and 17(2)), but they exclude decisions taken under the sovereignty clause (Article 17(1)). Thus, the data on outgoing Dublin requests cover all persons included in a decision received by the reporting country in response to a request to have a partner country take responsibility for the asylum application. This does not mean that the transfer was necessarily carried out, but it does mean that the partner Member State replied to the request, whether it was accepted or rejected, within the time limit or there was an implicit acceptance due to the expiration of the time limit.
In 2023, 176,000 decisions were issued in response to outgoing Dublin requests,xvi according to provisional data which are regularly exchanged between the EUAA and 29 EU+ countries.xvii This represented an 8% increase compared to 2022, resulting in the highest annual total since at least 2016. The number of monthly Dublin decisions was persistently above the 14,000 mark between July and November 2023 as a consequence of the 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 15%, similar to 2022. Although some decisions on Dublin requests concerned family reunion cases, the stable ratio of decisions to applications suggests that in 2023 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 8), jointly accounting for around three-fifths of the EU+ total. Germany received one-sixth more responses than in 2022, whereas responses received by France remained stable compared to the previous year. Several other countries received more responses in 2023, with the most notable relative increases in Cyprus, Switzerland, Slovenia, Norway, Luxembourg and Italy (in descending order).xviii In contrast, some countries received fewer responses in absolute terms, most notably Belgium and Croatia.
As in previous years, Italy issued the most decisions overall on Dublin requests. However, for the first time on record, Croatia emerged as the second country issuing the most decisions (see the right side of Figure 8). While Italy issued one-third more decisions than in 2022, reaching the highest level since 2018, decisions issued by Croatia almost tripled compared to the previous year, rising to the most on record.xix Decisions issued by Bulgaria, which had risen to an all-time high in 2022, remained stable at an exceptionally high level, positioning Bulgaria as the country issuing the third-most Dublin decisions in 2023.
Germany and France received the most decisions on Dublin requests, while Italy responded to the most requests
Figure 8. Decisions on outgoing Dublin requests by selected countries receiving a decision (left) and responding to a request (right), 2023
Source: EUAA EPS data.
At lower levels, important relative increases also took place in Latvia, Slovakia, Portugal and Belgium (in descending order).xx Latvia issued over twice as many decisions as in 2022, decisions by Slovakia increased by two-thirds, and decisions by Portugal and Belgium increased by around one-third and one-sixth, respectively. In contrast, fewer decisions were issued by several countries, including Greece,xxi Spain, Austria, Poland, Lithuania, Slovenia and Hungary (ordered from largest to smallest absolute decrease).
- xviThis includes both decisions on requests and re-examination requests.
- xviiEPS data were not available for Czechia from March-December 2023, for Greece from July-December 2023 and for Portugal from September-December 2023.
- xviiiOnly countries which received at least 200 decisions in 2023 were considered.
- xixSince the start of the EPS data exchange in 2015.
- xxOnly countries which received at least 500 decisions in 2023 were considered. Data for Portugal were missing for October–December 2023; therefore the comparison is limited to the first 9 months of the year.
- xxiData for Greece were missing from July-December 2023; therefore the comparison is limited to the first 6 months of the year.