UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Regional Cooperative Approach to Address Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Irregular Movement, November 2011, https://www.refworld.org/reference/regionalreport/unhcr/2011/83034 [accessed 30 April 2026]
Member States' responsibility not to transfer an asylum applicant where the receiving State cannot guarantee the fundamental rights of the asylum-seeker.
UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), UNHCR intervention before the Court of Justice of the European Union in the cases of N.S. v. Secretary of State for the Home Department in United Kingdom and M.E. and Others v. Refugee Application Commissioner and the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform in Ireland, C-411/10 and C-493/10, 1 February 2011, https://www.refworld.org/jurisprudence/amicus/unhcr/2011/77120 [accessed 30 April 2026]
On transfers under the Dublin II Regulation and effective remedies available against such transfers; burden of proof and the presumption of safety of EU Member States / "Dublin" countries; the material situation of asylum-seekers in Greece, including reception conditions; access to Greece's asylum procedures and the risk of (indirect) refoulement
UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), UNHCR intervention before the European Court of Human Rights in the case of M.S.S. v. Belgium and Greece, June 2010, https://www.refworld.org/jurisprudence/amicus/unhcr/2010/73506 [accessed 30 April 2026]
UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), UNHCR comments on the European Commission's Proposal for a recast of the Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing the criteria and mechanisms for determining the Member State responsible for examining an application for international protection lodged in one of the Member States by a third country national or a stateless person ("Dublin II") (COM(2008) 820, 3 December 2008) and the European Commission's Proposal for a recast of the Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning the establishment of 'Eurodac' for the comparison of fingerprints for the effective application of [the Dublin II Regulation] (COM(2008) 825, 3 December 2008), 18 March 2009, https://www.refworld.org/legal/natlegcomments/unhcr/2009/72612 [accessed 30 April 2026]
This paper proposes criteria for determining when international law, and when sound policy, permit a country to return an asylum seeker to a third country without deciding the substance of his or her claim. It is argued, contrary to conventional wisdom, that the criteria for returning asylum seekers to “safe third countries” are precisely the same as the criteria for returning them to “first countries of asylum.” In the course of constructing these criteria, the paper argues that various developments in international law now add up to a general “complicity principle:”
Stephen H. Legomsky, Secondary Refugee Movements and the Return of Asylum Seekers to Third Countries: The Meaning of Effective Protection, Research Paper No.2, UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), February 2003, https://www.refworld.org/reference/lpprs/unhcr/2003/33445 [accessed 30 April 2026]
UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), UNHCR's Observations on the European Commission's Proposal for a Council Regulation Establishing the Criteria and Mechanisms for Determining the Member State Responsible for Examining an Asylum Application Lodged in One of the Member States by a Third-Country National (COM (2001) 447 final), -, 1 February 2002, https://www.refworld.org/legal/intlegcomments/unhcr/2002/17823 [accessed 30 April 2026]
