Responsibility for Examining an Asylum Request

Parallel to the influx of asylum seekers during the 1980s, xenophobic tendencies have been witnessed in certain Western European countries. While directed at all foreigners, these tendencies sometimes have led to restrictive practices or methods which include both denying that asylum seekers qualify as refugees, so they may be sent home more easily, and shifting the responsibility for examining asylum claims to other countries. An analysis of the increasingly restrictive practices regarding the granting of asylum and the concept of a refugee is a complicated task, which requires a detailed investigation of the jurisprudence in a number of countries. This article, however, will not concentrate on an analysis of jurisprudence regarding asylum but rather on the tendency of various states to shift the responsibility for examining asylum requests to another country.