Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 19 January 2016 to Questions 22594 and 22595, whether it is her Department's policy that an applicant for international protection who enters the UK from France clandestinely but had not made an application for international protection in France should be returned to France in accordance with the Dublin Regulation.

In order for the Dublin Regulation to apply an application for international protection must be lodged in one of the participating States.

A person who has arrived in the UK clandestinely from France who then claims asylum in the UK can be returned to France under the terms of the Dublin Regulation even if they have not claimed asylum in France as long as the criteria in the Regulation demonstrate that France is the responsible state. For example, asylum seekers can be returned if they have close family members in France, a visa or residence permit has been issued to them by the French authorities or if they have been in France illegally for a period of 5 months or more.