Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to Question 41028, whether migrants who have illegally entered the UK in 2020, and have not been returned to other countries due to a suspension of the Dublin Agreement during covid-19 restrictions, will be re-assessed for return once the pandemic is over.

The Dublin III Regulation is a long-standing mechanism between EU Member States to determine responsibility for examining asylum claims. It is not an application route for transfer to the UK.

Under the Dublin III Regulation, member states have three months to make a request to another participating member state to take back or take charge of the asylum application. Requested member states have two months from receiving a request to accept or reject responsibility for processing the asylum claim. Once a Dublin request has been accepted, the Regulation provides that the sending Member State has six months to enact the transfer.

The Home Office continues to work closely with EU Member State partners to enact transfers as soon as possible and ahead of the six-month timeframe. We are responding to the unique circumstances of the coronavirus outbreak by closely monitoring the transfer suspensions imposed by other member states and will seek to return those migrants accepted by another member state as soon as the relevant suspension ends, and a route of return becomes available.