4.2.2 Acceptance rate for Dublin requests

The acceptance rate for decisions on Dublin requests measures the proportion of decisions accepting responsibility for an application (explicitly or implicitly) out of all decisions issued. The acceptance rate in 2020 was 56%, showing a continued decrease for the third successive year at the EU+ level and also in most Dublin Member States.

However, the EU+ rate masks large variations which can be found at the country level. While just 3% of the decisions issued by Greece (see the right side of Figure 4.6) and 4% of decisions by Hungary accepted responsibility, the acceptance rate was close to 90% or higher in Latvia, Lithuania and Portugal. The acceptance rates also differed across nationalities, which was at least partially influenced by the country issuing the decision.

Overall, nationals from Afghanistan received the most decisions on outgoing Dublin requests (13%), followed at some distance by Syrians, Iraqis, Algerians, Nigerians, Pakistanis and Moroccans (in descending order, see Figure 4.7).^xxi While the number of decisions decreased for most nationalities compared to 2019, there were some noteworthy exceptions. In particular, Moroccans and Syrians were represented slightly more often. The increase for Moroccans was mainly linked to more decisions issued by Croatia on Slovenian requests (largely refusals) and to a lesser extent more decisions by Romania on Austrian requests (mainly acceptances). The increase for Syrians was triggered by more responses from Romania to requests from Austria and Germany (primarily acceptances), as well as more responses from Greece to requests from Germany and vice versa (mostly rejections in both cases).

The number of decisions involving Afghans and Algerians remained relatively stable. However, for many other citizenships there were significant decreases, most notably for Nigerians (-65%) and Turks (-50%).