3.2.3.1. Citizenship of applicants in the Dublin procedure
Despite declining by around one-fifth from 2022, Afghan citizens continued to receive the most decisions on Dublin requests in 2023, accounting for one-fifth of all decisions in EU+ countries (see Figure 9).xxii Decisions for nationals of Syria followed, increasing by two-fifths from the previous year and reaching, yet again, an unprecedented level.
A significant rise in decisions on Dublin cases took place for other nationalities as well. Decisions for Turkish nationals increased by four-fifths from the previous year, and for Moroccans and Russians, the number more than doubled. For all three nationalities, this was the most on record.
One-fifth of decisions on Dublin requests concerned Afghan citizen
Figure 9. Top 5 nationalities receiving decisions on Dublin requests, 2016–2023
Note: The size of the bars is proportional to the number of decisions issued during the year.
EPS data were not available for Czechia from March-December 2023, for Greece from July-December 2023 and for Portugal from September-December 2023.
Source: EUAA EPS data as of 1 February 2024.
At lower levels, all-time highs in decisions were recorded for citizens of Algeria, Guinea, Bangladesh, Côte d'Ivoire, Tunisia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi, Egypt, India, Cameroon, Angola and Sri Lanka (in descending order).xxiii In contrast, decisions for Pakistanis declined from 2022 by one-fifth, for Iraqis by one-half and for Moldovans by around two-fifths.
- xxiiCitizenship was not reported in <1% of decisions. Until the third quarter of 2022, France did not report the legal basis and the citizenship of applicants who received decisions. This explains the lower level of unreported citizenships at the EU+ level compared to 2022 (6%) and may account for some of the increases observed for several nationalities.
- xxiiiOnly citizenships which received at least 1,000 decisions in 2023 were considered.