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Statistics Explained

Data extracted in June 2025.

Planned article update: July 2026.

Statistics on countries responsible for asylum applications (Dublin Regulation)

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Data extracted in June 2025.

Planned article update: July 2026.

Highlights

In 2024, under the Dublin Regulation, Germany (74 581) and France (30 986) reported the largest number of outgoing requests to other EU countries; the largest number of incoming requests was recorded by Italy (42 807), followed by Croatia (23 721), Greece (17 163) and Germany (14 977).

In 2024, Germany (69 624) and France (31 311) received the largest number of decisions on their outgoing requests; Italy (43 150), Croatia (22 622) and Greece (16 915) made the largest number of decisions on incoming requests using the Dublin procedure.

In 2024, Germany and France recorded the largest number of transfers following the Dublin procedure: Germany reported 5 827 outgoing and 4 591 incoming transfers, while France reported 2 624 outgoing and 2 201 incoming transfers.

A graph showing the outgoing 'Dublin' requests and transfers in 2024. For more details please use the link to the source dataset code below the image.
Source: Eurostat (migr_dubro) and (migr_dubto)

This article presents statistics on the implementation of Regulation (EU) No 604/2013;[1] (called hereafter 'Dublin Regulation') which aims at determining rapidly the EU country responsible for an asylum application and at preventing abuse of the system by the submission of several applications for asylum by one person. Data[2] are provided for EU countries and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries. The main principle is that only one EU country or EFTA country is responsible for examining an asylum application by a citizen of a non-EU country or by a stateless person. If during the course of the processing of an application the authorities in one EU country decide that the application should be dealt with in another EU country, the authorities of the former may make a request to the other EU country to take over responsibility of the asylum application (and consequently take over the applicant). Accordingly, the statistics refer to outgoing requests (EU countries reporting requests sent out) and incoming requests (EU countries reporting requests received), covering the: three main components related to the application of the Dublin Regulation: Dublin requests (initial requests), decisions on Dublin requests (positive and negative) and transfers following the acceptance of the requests. The purpose is to identify the EU country responsible for processing the asylum application based on specific criteria outlined in the regulation and potentially transferring the asylum seeker there. In this article, the term 'requests' refers specifically to requests of asylum seekers sent by a EU country to another EU country under the Dublin system, excluding re-examinations.


Dublin requests

Incoming and outgoing Dublin requests in 2024

In 2024, there were large disparities in incoming requests between EU countries (Figure 1), both in terms of how many requests were handled and in terms of the net requests received (the difference between the number of incoming and outgoing requests).

At the EU level, the total outgoing requests differs from the total of incoming requests, including transfer requests. This discrepancy can be attributed to administrative differences caused by data compilation methods, as well as the timing of recording of requests.

The largest numbers of outgoing requests in 2024 were sent by Germany (74 581), France (30 986) and Belgium (12 501). 8 EU countries sent out fewer than 200 outgoing requests in 2024: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Hungary, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Spain.

Figure 1

Italy received the largest number of incoming requests in 2024, a total of 42 807, followed by Croatia (23 721), Greece (17 163) and Germany (14 977). 12 EU countries for which data are available for the year 2024 received less than 1 000 requests, among which Ireland received fewer than 100 requests (92 requests).

When comparing the number of requests sent and the number of requests received, 18 EU countries received more requests in 2023 than they have sent. By contrast, 9 EU countries sent more requests than they received.

Incoming take charge and take back requests

There are 2 types of requests, namely take charge or take back requests. In the case of the take charge requests, the requesting country (sending the request) considers that another EU country (receiving the request) should take over responsibility for examining the asylum application of an individual. In the case of take back requests, the asylum seeker (who is in the requesting country) has already submitted an application for asylum in a country receiving the request.

In 2024, EU countries received a total of 167 438 incoming transfer requests, of which 35.3% were take charge requests (59 097) and 64.7% were take back requests (108 341).

In 19 EU countries there were more take back than take charge requests, while the reverse situation was observed in the remaining 8 EU countries (Figure 2). The ratio of take back to take charge requests was particularly high in Austria and Croatia (22 and 15 take back requests for each take charge request) and to a lesser extent in Greece (13), Slovenia (11) and Bulgaria (11). By contrast, more than 70% of requests received in Czechia (96%), Spain (82.2%), Italy (75.4%), Hungary (74.2%), Portugal (73.8%) and Estonia (72.1%) were take charge requests.

Figure 2

Reasons for incoming take charge and take back requests

The 2 pie charts in Figures 3.1 and 3.2 present the underlying reasons for taking charge or taking back requests. In 2024, the vast majority of incoming take charge requests received in EU countries were related to irregular entry (57.6%), documentation and legal entry (37.4%) and family reasons (3.6%); together these 3 categories accounted for over 98.5% of all take charge requests.

Figure 3.1

For incoming take back requests, the lack of permission to stay for an asylum applicant (no residence permit) accounted for 92.7% of cases still under examination while 6.8% had been rejected. The withdrawal of applications— either during the Dublin procedure or with new applications — made up only 0.3% of cases.

Figure 3.2

Incoming requests by sex and by type of applicant

In 2024, in all countries for which data are available, the incoming requests mainly concerned men. In Slovenia, Romania and Austria the share of requests related to men accounted for over 90% (Figure 4.1). The greatest share of requests that related to women (over 35%) were observed in Cyprus, Estonia, Czechia and Portugal.

Figure 4.1

Looking at the type of applicant (adults, accompanied and unaccompanied minors), in only 2 EU countries the share of incoming requests related to unaccompanied minors was above 5%: Bulgaria (5.6%) and Denmark (7.0%) (Figure 4.2).

Figure 4.2

Outgoing take charge and take back requests

Regarding outgoing requests in 2024, EU countries submitted a total of 151 346 requests, of which 30.0% were take charge requests (45 476) and 70.0% were take back requests (105 870).

In 18 EU countries there were more take back than take charge requests, while the reverse situation was seen in the remaining countries (Figure 5). The ratio of take back to take charge requests was particularly high in Slovenia (137.4), Ireland (61.8), Croatia (53.6) and Hungary (32.8). In contrast, 99.7% of the requests sent from Cyprus were take charge requests, with this share reaching 96.2% in Spain and 82.2% in Greece.

Figure 5

Reasons for outgoing take charge and take back requests

In 2024, the vast majority of outgoing take charge requests sent by EU countries were related to irregular entry (47.1%), documentation and legal entry (43.1%); together these 2 categories accounted for 9 out of 10 (90.2%) take charge requests (Figure 6.1).

Figure 6.1

Nearly all outgoing take back requests sent were related to no permission to stay, either concerning applications under examination (91.7%) or rejected ones (6.8%).

Figure 6.2

Outgoing requests by sex and by type of applicant

In 2024, for countries for which data are available, outgoing requests concerned mostly men. (Figure 7.1). The greatest share of outgoing requests concerning women was observed in Latvia (40.6%) followed by Poland (36.5%) and Spain (31.0%).

Figure 7.1

Looking at the type of applicant (adults, accompanied and unaccompanied minor), the share of outgoing requests related to unaccompanied minor was above 12% only in 4 EU countries: Croatia (12.1%), Cyprus (15.8%), Greece (26.1%) and Bulgaria (27.3%). In Bulgaria and Greece, the share of requests that concerned minors (both accompanied and unaccompanied) accounted for 42.4%, while in Cyprus and Italy it was respectively (37.8%) and (24.2%). In Portugal and Slovakia, all the outgoing requests were for adults (Figure 7.2).

Figure 7.2

Decisions on Dublin requests

Accepted and rejected decisions

The number of decisions on incoming or outgoing requests is related to the number of requests (excluding the re-examination requests), although the decision on a particular request may be made in a different calendar year, especially if decisions are delayed[3] Due to the relative volatility in the incoming and outgoing requests in EU countries in recent years (related to the volatility in the number of asylum applicants) there can be substantial differences between the number of requests and the number of decisions in a single reporting year. In 2024, Italy (43 150), Croatia (22 622) and Greece (16 915) issued the largest number of decisions on incoming requests (Figure 8). A further 12 EU countries took more than 1 000 decisions on Dublin requests in 2024. Among the remaining 12 EU countries, Ireland took the fewest decisions (66). Latvia accepted (94.6%) of the requests it received, Croatia 88.3%, Poland (86.9%) and Italy (85.2%).

Among the 3 countries, Greece recorded the lowest acceptance rate for transfer requests in 2024, with only 1.8% of requests accepted. This is significantly lower compared to Cyprus (25.0%), Ireland (28.8%) and the overall EU average acceptance rate of 66.3%.

Figure 8

Looking at decisions on outgoing requests in 2024, Germany (69 624) and France (31 311) received the largest number of decisions on requests they had sent to other countries (Figure 9). A further 10 EU countries received at least 1 000 decisions on their outgoing requests in 2024. The 15 remaining EU countries received fewer than 1 000 decisions on their requests, while Estonia, Slovakia, Lithuania, Spain and Latvia received less than 100 decisions on their outgoing requests.

Among the countries, Croatia recorded one of the lowest acceptance rates for outgoing decision requests in 2024, with an acceptance rate of only 24.7% of requests approved. This rate is notably lower compared to Cyprus (86.8%), Romania (80.8%), Luxembourg (80.4%) and the overall EU average acceptance rate of 65.6%.

Figure 9


Implemented transfers

The final stage of the Dublin procedure, in case of acceptance of the request, is the actual transfer of the person from the requesting EU country to the EU country responsible. In 2024, the largest number of incoming transfers was recorded by Germany (4 591), followed by France (2 201) and Croatia (1 698). The largest numbers of outgoing transfers were reported by Germany (5 827), France (2 624) and the Netherlands (2 245) (Figure 10).

Cyprus registered the highest transfer rate with 75% (1 165 outgoings transfers to 1 556 outgoing requests), ahead of Slovakia with 61% (40 outgoing transfers to 66 outgoing requests) and Lithuania 54% (37 outgoing transfers to 68 outgoing requests). The lowest rates were registered in Italy and Ireland (both less than 1%) with Portugal and Slovenia (around 2%).

Figure 10

Figures 11 and 12 provide an analysis of the time taken for applicants to be transferred, based on the time lag between a decision being taken and the person actually being transferred [4].

In 2024, in Cyprus and Malta all incoming transfers were completed within 6 months. In all the EU countries for which data are available at least half of all incoming transfers were completed within 6 months. Slovenia had the greatest share of transfers completed between 7 and 12 months (32.1%), while Lithuania and Romania had the largest shares of transfers completed between 13 and 18 months, respectively (17.4%) and (10.7%).

Figure 11

For outgoing transfers (Figure 12) there were 8 EU countries where all (100%) outgoing transfers were implemented within 6 months. Ireland reported the lowest share of outgoing transfers completed within 6 months (33.3%) for its 6 outgoing transfers.

Figure 12

For more detailed information on implemented transfers by sex and type of applicant please refer to the Eurostat database.

Source data for tables and graphs

Data sources

The legal basis of data collection on migration and international protection (asylum) is Council Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 of 11;July 2007, which refers to the obligation to submit Dublin statistics (among other statistics on migration and international protection). The national data are provided by interior ministries (also known as ministries for internal or home affairs), statistical offices or agencies responsible for immigration.

Data are collected on an annual basis (calendar year) and must be transmitted by reporting countries no later than 3 months after the end of the reference period. The time series start with the 2008 reference year. Limitations on data availability affecting the information presented in this article:

  • Incoming 'Dublin' transfers by submitting country (PARTNER), legal provision, duration of transfer, sex and type of applicant:
- Czechia - for the 'duration' and 'Legal provision' disaggregations, the information is sent as unknown for year 2024.
- Portugal - missing data for 'Legal provision', breakdowns “CHRG Taking charge requests”, reference year 2024.
- Liechtenstein - missing information on disaggregation 'duration' for 2024.
  • Outgoing 'Dublin' transfers by receiving country (PARTNER), legal provision, duration of transfer, sex and type of applicant:
- Poland - data for disaggregation 'Applicant' (Adult, UAM, AM) is missing for year 2024.
- Czechia and Portugal - Missing data for the 'duration' and 'Legal provision' disaggregations, reference year 2024.
  • Incoming 'Dublin' requests by submitting country (PARTNER), type of request, legal provision, duration of response, sex and type of applicant:
- Poland - data for disaggregation 'Applicant' (Adult, UAM, AM) is missing for year 2024.
- France - 'sex'-disaggregated and information by 'Applicant' type data are missing for 2024.
  • Outgoing 'Dublin' requests by receiving country (PARTNER), type of request, legal provision, sex and type of applicant:
- Portugal - missing information for 're-examination' requests for year 2024.
  • Decision on incoming Dublin requests by submitting country (Partner), type of decision, type of request, legal provision, sex, and type of applicant:
- Poland: data for disaggregation 'Applicant' (Adult, UAM, AM) is missing for year 2024.
- Portugal- missing information for disaggregation 'Legal provision' and for 'requests' for 2024.
  • Decision on outgoing Dublin requests by receiving country (Partner), type of decision, type of request, legal provision, sex, and type of applicant:
- Poland: data for disaggregation 'Applicant' (Adult, UAM, AM) is missing for year 2024.
- Portugal - missing information for disaggregation 'Legal provision' and 're-examination requests' for year 2024.

Data quality and comparability

Article 4.4 of Council Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 refers to statistics based on the number of requests. It is however recommended by Eurostat that data should be provided with respect to the number of persons concerned (by requests, decisions and transfers) as some requests may relate to more than 1 person. However, for technical reasons some countries supply statistics relating to the number of requests rather than persons.

Asymmetries exist between incoming requests received by 1 EU country and outgoing requests sent by another. Asymmetries may exist for a number of reasons.

EU countries may record requests at different times — a few days apart, which may lead to some small asymmetries between 1 reporting year and the next.

The initial reason for a request may be changed by the EU country receiving the request if its investigation of the request shows that there is a different basis for accepting the request than that proposed by the requesting EU country. Such changes in the nature of the requests may not be fully reflected in the statistics reported by the requesting and receiving EU country.

As noted above, some EU countries provide information for the number of requests and others for the number of persons and these differ in the case of multi-person requests.

Context

Background

Since 1999, the EU has been working towards creating a common European asylum regime in accordance with the Geneva Convention and other applicable international instruments. The Directorate-General Migration and Home Affairs (DG HOME) is responsible for developing EU policies on asylum. The main legal instruments on asylum, including the responsibility criteria determining the EU country responsible for assessing an asylum application, are:

  • Asylum and Migration Management Regulation (EU) No 2024/1351 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 May 2024 on asylum and migration management, amending Regulations (EU) 2021/1147 and (EU) 2021/1060 and repealing Regulation (EU) No 604/2013;
  • Eurodac Regulation (EU) No 2024/1358 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 May 2024 on the establishment of ‘Eurodac’ for the comparison of biometric data in order to effectively apply Regulations (EU) 2024/1351 and (EU) 2024/1350 of the European Parliament and of the Council and Council Directive 2001/55/EC to identify illegally staying third-country nationals and stateless persons and on requests for the comparison with Eurodac data by EU countries’ law enforcement authorities and Europol for law enforcement purposes, amending Regulations (EU) 2018/1240 and (EU) 2019/818 of the European Parliament and of the Council and repealing Regulation (EU) No 603/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council;
  • Asylum Regulation Procedure (EU) No 1347/2024 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 May 2024 on standards for the qualification of third-country nationals or stateless persons as beneficiaries of international protection, for a uniform status for refugees or for persons eligible for subsidiary protection and for the content of the protection granted, amending Council Directive 2003/109/EC and repealing Directive 2011/95/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council;
  • Qualification Regulation (EU) No 2024/1348 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 May 2024 establishing a common procedure for international protection in the Union and repealing Directive 2013/32/EU;
  • Reception Conditions Directive (EU) No 2024/1346 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 May 2024 laying down standards for the reception of applicants for international protection;
  • Screening Regulation (EU) No 2024/1356 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 May 2024 introducing the screening of third-country nationals at the external borders and amending Regulations (EC) No 767/2008, (EU) 2017/2226, (EU) 2018/1240 and (EU) 2019/817;
  • Union Resettlement Framework Regulation (EU) No 2024/1350 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 May 2024 establishing a Union Resettlement and Humanitarian Admission Framework, and amending Regulation (EU) 2021/1147.

These legal instruments were introduced by the Pact on Migration and Asylum which sets out new rules for managing migration and establishing a common asylum system at EU level. It builds on and amends previous reform proposals in the area of migration, offering a comprehensive approach that aims at strengthening and integrating key EU policies on migration, asylum, border management and integration.

In recent years, there has been an increase in demand for more detailed Dublin statistics. The amendment to Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 introduced additional dimensions by sex and by type of applicant. These additional data have been collected since the reference year 2021.

On 10 April 2024, the European Parliament voted in favour of the new rules on migration, followed by their formal adoption by the Council of the EU, on 14 May 2024. The Dublin Regulation

The Dublin Regulation (developed from the original Dublin Convention) establishes the EU country responsible for the examination of an asylum application. Regulation (EC) 2003/343 (known as Dublin II) replaced the 1990 Dublin Convention which first set the criteria relating to responsibility for processing an individual's asylum application. Dublin II remained valid until 1 January 2014, when Regulation (EU) No 604/2013, which was adopted on 26 June 2013, entered into force: it is known as Dublin III. All EU countries apply the Dublin Regulation, as do the EFTA countries. This Regulation was repealed by the Regulation (EU) 2024/1351 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 May 2024 on asylum and migration management, which will apply from 1 July 2026. Until this period, statistics will be collected on the basis of Regulation (EU) 604/2013.From the reference year 2026, the new Regulation will be used for the reporting.

The Dublin procedure establishes the principle that only 1 EU country is responsible for examining an asylum application. The objective is to avoid asylum seekers being sent from 1 country to another and also to prevent abuse of the system by the submission of several applications for asylum by 1 person. The criteria for establishing responsibility range, in hierarchical order, from family considerations, to recent possession of a visa or residence permit in a EU country, to whether the applicant has entered the EU irregularly or regularly.

In April 2016, the European Commission presented a Communication Towards a reform of the Common European Asylum System and enhancing legal avenues to Europe (COM(2016) 197 final). This was followed in May and July 2016 by 2 packages of proposals for reforming the common European asylum system. Part of the first package was a proposal for a reform of the Dublin Regulation (COM(2016) 0270 final/2). These proposals to introduce a new pact on migration and asylum aimed to improve and speed up procedures for the asylum and migration system, while promoting the fair sharing of responsibility and solidarity.

After intense, yet unsuccessful negotiations, the EU countries were unable to agree on a common approach and negotiations on the proposal for a reform of the Dublin Regulation stalled. In September 2020, the European Commission proposed to replace the Dublin III Regulation with a new Regulation on asylum and migration management (COM(2020) 610 final).

Footnotes

  1. This regulation, also known as the Dublin III Regulation, entered into force in January 2014 and it was repealed in June 2024 by Regulation (EU) No 2024/1351 on asylum and migration management. The Dublin III Regulation is the key legislation for the allocation of this responsibility. It is based on a hierarchical set of criteria, from family considerations, to recent possession of a visa or residence permit in an EU countries to whether the applicant has entered the EU irregularly or regularly. The Dublin III Regulation is complemented by the EURODAC Regulation (EU) No 603/2013 which established the use of an EU asylum fingerprint database, the EURODAC central system and which was also repealed in June 2024 by the Regulation (EU) No 2024/1351 on asylum and migration management. ↑
  2. Data presented in this article refer to the geopolitical entity of the reporting country (GEO dimension in the online datasets) and are not to be confused with the data of the partner country involved (PARTNER dimension). For example, for Figure 1, the number of outgoing requests refers to the number of requests sent from the reporting country (to all partner countries), while the number of incoming requests refers to (incoming) requests received by the reporting country (from all partner countries). ↑
  3. The Dublin Regulation (EU) No 604/2013 foresees that a reply (decision) shall be given within 2 months of receipt of a request to take charge of an applicant and within one month for requests to take back an applicant, depending on specific provisions. ↑
  4. Data are compiled for 3 periods corresponding to the various possibilities for the timing of transfers as laid down in the Dublin III Regulation: the transfer of the applicant from the requesting EU country shall be carried out in accordance with the national law of the requesting EU country and at the latest within 6 months of acceptance of the request; this time limit may be extended up to a maximum of 1 year if the transfer could not be carried out due to the imprisonment of the person concerned or up to a maximum of 18 months if the person concerned absconds. ↑

Explore further

Other articles


Database
'Dublin' statistics (migr_dub)
'Dublin' requests (migr_dubreq)
Decisions on 'Dublin' requests (migr_dubdec)
Transfers (migr_dubtransf)

Thematic section

Publications

Methodology

External links

Legislation
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