WKR, Re Judicial Review

Judicial Review of a decision by the United Kingdom Border Agency on behalf of the Secretary of State for the Home Department dated 26 March 2012 declining to examine the petitioner's claim for asylum, etcetera

[2] The petitioner wants the Court to quash the decision of 26 March 2012 and also the directions that followed on 16 May 2012 for the petitioner's removal to Germany. I heard submissions at a first hearing of the petition on 28 September 2012 and made avizandum . I have now decided that the petition has to be refused.

Council Regulation (EC) No 343/2003, the Dublin II Regulation [3] The Dublin II Regulation provides a system for allocating responsibility for assessing asylum claims among member states. Chapter III of the regulation (articles 5 to 14) provides a "hierarchy of criteria" for allocating responsibility. Article 13 is the default provision:

"Where no Member State responsible for examining the application for asylum can be designated on the basis of the criteria listed in this Regulation, the first Member State with which the application for asylum was lodged shall be responsible for examining it."

[4] The reprise obligation does not persist indefinitely. In terms of article 20(2), if return of the asylum seeker to the member state of first application is not effected within six months the reprise obligation ceases and the obligation to determine the asylum claim transfers to the requesting member state. The time limit can be extended up to a maximum of 18 months in the case of absconders. In terms of article 4(5) the reprise obligation also ceases if the asylum seeker has in the meantime left the European Union for a period of at least three months.