Managing the Refugee Crisis by (Slightly) Revising the Dublin System

Since 2015 on the EU is facing an unprecedented humanitarian crisis as it struggles with a massive influx of displaced persons seeking for international protection (refugee and subsidiary protection status) or a better life (migrants). The crisis also created harsh political tensions between Member States which challenge the functioning of the Schengen system. EU law concerning responsibility for examining applications for international protection is laid down by Regulation (EU) No. 604/2013 (Dublin III Regulation) according to which the first country of irregular entry of displaced persons is generally required to deal with asylum applications (the irregular entry criterion is the most frequently applied). 2015 migrant crisis persuaded EU Institutions and some Member States that a fundamental change in the way EU law deals with asylum applications and mass influxes was needed. Along with two provisional ad hoc measures, a proposal establishing a permanent crisis relocation mechanism on a mandatory basis was tabled on September 2015 while the revision of Dublin III Regulation by suppressing the irregular entry criterion and instead introducing the relocation principle in all circumstances was discussed. Relocation and fairer distribution of applicants for international protection between all Member States was supposed to be the new framework in which due consideration was to be given to the ‘specific qualifications and characteristics of the applicants’ as well as to the ‘preferences for applicants’ indicated by the Member State of relocation. Future EU approach towards migration and humanitarian crisis would have been very different from the present one and applicants for international protection would no longer have treated as ‘numbers’ but persons. Yet, the final proposal on the recast of Dublin III Regulation tabled by the Commission on May 2016 falls short of the ambitious targets set by proposals and discussions advanced in 2015. The result is that the new proposed legal framework lowers the human security both of applicants for international protection and of European host societes