Complementing Schengen: The Dublin System and the European Border and Migration Regime

Abstract

It was pure coincidence that we met Cawad, a refugee from Somalia, in Milano in September 2011. We had come to Milano a few days ago to study the reception and living conditions of refugees in Italy, with a particular focus on the Dublin II regulation. In order to prepare for the research, we had conducted interviews with several refugees who had come from Italy in Bavarian refugee camps. It was in the Bavarian city of Augsburg that we first met Cawad. He told us how he had arrived on the Italian island of Lampedusa in August 2008, where his fingerprints were taken and where he applied for asylum in order not to be deported. He spent several months in a reception center in the Italian city of Bari. After he was dismissed from the center and refused any further social assistance, he managed to reach Milano, the economic hub in northern Italy, where he spent his days on the street. Every day, he told us, he was busy securing at least some food. Without a home, without language courses, without medical assistance, without a job, he was barely able to sustain himself. Seeking assistance from the municipal authorities did not yield any results. It was only when he was offered 100 euro as a one-time payment that he took his chance and left for Switzerland where he applied for asylum again. He was swiftly deported back to Milano by the German police. Over the course of the next years, he applied for asylum in the Netherlands as well as in Sweden, but ended up being deported to Italy in all cases.