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Obedience and Dehumanization: Placing the Dublin Regulation within a Historical Context

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Abstract

This article critically examines the Dublin Regulation and its impact on asylum-seekers, disputing the claim that the regulation is in accordance with human rights treaties. By drawing on case studies of asylum-seekers arriving at refugee shelters in Berlin from eastern and southeast European countries, the article demonstrates that the regulation’s genuine motive is to deter and control non-EU nationals. The case studies in this article show that surveillance mechanisms and EU laws inflict slow violence (Nixon 2011) on asylum-seekers. By applying Hannah Arendt’s remarks on Adolf Eichmann’s “inability to think” (1977), the article suggests that a similar process of “thoughtlessness” is at work within the current human rights violations of the Dublin Regulation. Drawing on the historical legacy of the social work profession, it ultimately proposes a social work model of civil disobedience as a counter strategy.

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Notes

  1. Born in Norway in 1861, Fridtjof Nansen was appointed the first High Commissioner for Refugees by the League of Nations in 1921. Nansen identified that one of the main problems faced by refugees was the lack of internationally recognized identification papers, which in turn complicated their request for asylum (UNHCR 2009). In March 1922, at the Council of the League of Nations, Nansen proposed the “Nansen Passport,” which would allow refugees to travel and protect them from deportation (Giamimo 2017). Recognized by more than 50 nations (Salter 2003), the passport allowed in the years between 1922 and 1938 refugees temporary residence after alienation from their homeland.

  2. Its full (and lengthy) name is European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the Member States of the European Union

  3. Regulation (EU) No. 1052/2013.

  4. Full name is “The Convention Determining the State Responsible for Examining Applications for Asylum Lodged.”

  5. Regulation 343/2003 and Regulation 604/2013.

  6. Regulation (EU) No 603/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 June 2013.

  7. In the EU, complementary forms of international protection in addition to refugee status are known as subsidiary protection. Under German national law, the right to family reunification is defined in Acts § 25 Abs. 2 S. 1 2. Alt AufenthG, § 4 AsylG.

  8. According to Directive 2013/32/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 June 2013 on common procedures for granting and withdrawing international protection, Article 38, a county is a safe third country: when (a) life and liberty are not threatened on account of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion; (b) there is no risk of serious harm as defined in Directive 2011/95/EU; (c) the principle of non-refoulement in accordance with the Geneva Convention is respected.

  9. In Berlin, this process is prone to misunderstandings for the residents, as they have to register their address twice (both with the Federal Office for Migration and the citizen office).

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  1. Alice Salomon University of Applied Sciences, Wichertstrasse 47, 10439, Berlin, Germany

    Marit Bugge

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Correspondence to Marit Bugge.

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Bugge, M. Obedience and Dehumanization: Placing the Dublin Regulation within a Historical Context. J. Hum. Rights Soc. Work 4, 91–100 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41134-019-0090-y

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