The New 'Dubliners': Implementation of European Council Regulation 343/2003 (Dublin-II) by the Greek Authorities

Abstract

The paper analyses a recent practice applied by the Greek asylum authorities in the case of many asylum applicants who are returned to Greece by another European Union Member State by virtue of the ‘Dublin-II’ Regulation. This practice consists in interrupting the examination of their asylum claim on the grounds that the applicants have arbitrarily abandoned their place of residence. Greek legislation provides for this action in similar cases but was not used, up till recently, on cases of ‘Dublin’ returnees. The paper examines the reasons that led the Greek authorities to adopt this policy and its foundation in Greek asylum law and procedures, and challenges the practice legally and politically. It argues that, in adopting such a stance, Greece seems not only to go against the main objective of the Dublin-II Regulation (that an asylum application is examined once, and once only in the EU) but to contradict and undermine European Union policies on asylum, breaking the principle of good faith in its relations with its EU partners. In addition, it considers the possibility of similar problems being repeated in other national legal orders.