Dublin II in Denmark
last update: January 2012
The main rule of the Dublin II Regulation is that your application for asylum is handled by one, and only one, country. The decision is based on in which country you have been registered and had your fingerprints taken the first time.
Fingerprints: If you meet the police in Denmark or any other EU country the police will take your fingerprints if you are more than 14 years old, and transmit them to a shared database called Eurodac. Here your fingerprints will be saved for ten years if you seek asylum and two years if you don't seek asylum and just pass through. If you choose to try to seek asylum in another country than the one where you have had your fingerprints registered, the authorities will automatically send you back to the country where you are registered. That means that once you have had your fingerprints taken you no longer have a choice about where to submit your application for asylum.
In January 2011 Denmark stopped deporting asylum-seekers to Greece for the time being. This was decided after the European Court of Human Right's verdict against Belgium in januar 2011.
The cooperation between EU countries of comparing fingerprints is effective and is very hard to escape. However there are a few ways to become detached from your country of registration. If you leave the Dublin II area for more than 3 months you can apply for asylum again in any Dublin country. However you have to prove that you have been outside EU in the period. Proving that you have been outside the EU can be hard and must be well thought through. Another option is to live underground in another EU country for at least 5 months coherently. If you can prove it, the country you have been in most recently can assess your asylumclaim. If you cannot be sent back to the first country you were registered, because you have been underground in Denmark, the responsibility is moved to Denmark 18 months after the other countries had originally accepted that your application would be assessed in their country.
Danish authorities can in exceptional circumstances eg, for humanitarian reasons choose to asses your application even though you are registered in another EU country. If you think there are such extraordinary circumstances in your case, contact a lawyer or a legal counselling group to help you appeal the decision. Look at the contact list.
Denmark stopped deporting to Greece
update: 24/01/2011
The minister of integration in Denmark has just decided to open up the 340 cases of asylum seekers with finger prints in Greece! There is a deportation-stop to Greece, this means new arrivals and also all people who are already in Denmark are not threatened by deportation to Greece any more and will have their case examined in Denmark.