The conclusion of the transition period on December 31, 2020, marked the end of Britain’s participation in the Dublin Regulation and a new chapter on how the country chooses to manage asylum, an issue typically approached by the government with hostile rhetoric and policy.
The Regulation determined which European Union member state was responsible for examining an asylum claim, usually the country through which the applicant first entered the EU. With some exceptions concerning unaccompanied minors and the reuniting of families, it provided the legal grounds to send people back from Britain to their country of entry where their asylum claim could be processed.
Britain tried to recreate the Dublin system outside of the EU, but these efforts were dismissed by Brussels as yet another unsatisfactory example of ‘cherry-picking’ the elements of EU justice and home affairs policy that the UK liked, while abandoning the rest.
