Access to an asylum process

Abstract: This study examines the asylum process in Europe from the perspective of unaccompanied refugee children affected by the Dublin Regulation. The aim is to explore whether these children get access to a legally certain asylum process in the Common European Asylum System by comparing the experiences of the children with legal documents, directives and guidelines on how the procedure should be implemented. The study has been conducted as a multiple case study where information has been collected from previous research, published stories and reports, news articles, legal documents and an interview with a representative from a local network supporting asylum seekers living in clandestinity. The study uses the theory of Hannah Arendt regarding the right to have rights, examining whether the children’s experiences of the asylum process in Europe compared to legal documents show signs of them being excluded from a legally certain process and what that may mean for their human rights to be implemented and protected. International human rights law states that children, and especially unaccompanied refugee children shall always receive special protection due to their vulnerable status and the European Union should guarantee a legally certain asylum procedure for all refugees in all member states. This study illuminates difficulties for unaccompanied refugee children affected by the Dublin Regulation to get access to a legally certain asylum process in Europe and in accordance with the theory of Arendt their functional statelessness tend to exclude them from getting human rights, advocated as universal, fulfilled.