Border procedures allow certain applications for international protection to be examined at the border or in transit zones without granting entry to the territory. Their design and application vary across Member States, depending on national legislation and administrative practices. In this Inform, “border procedure” refers to the national implementation of Article 43 of the Asylum Procedures Directive, covering both admissibility assessments and substantive examination of applications.

The main findings of the Inform are as follows:

• Twelve EMN Member Countries currently carry out asylum procedures at borders or transit zones, with Austria, the Czech Republic, and Germany limiting procedures to airports. Thirteen Member States do not operate border procedures.
   
• Two main types of authorities are involved in border procedures: law enforcement and determining authorities.
   
• Most countries applying border procedures have specific deadlines for issuing decisions, ranging from two working days to four weeks. Ten countries specify that entry to the territory should be granted if deadlines are not met.
   
• Border procedures may focus on admissibility (Article 43(1)(a)) or the substance of the application (Article 43(1)(b)). Hungary and Latvia only apply admissibility procedures, while eleven countries have transposed Article 43(1)(b).
   
• Seven EMN Member Countries have implemented all ten grounds listed in Article 31(8) of the Asylum Procedures Directive, which allow an accelerated examination or rejection of an application at the border or in transit zones in specific situations. These grounds include, for example, applications from safe countries of origin, cases where the applicant has provided false or contradictory information, repeated applications, or situations where the applicant poses a security risk or obstructs the procedure.
   
• Measures for applicants posing security risks include involvement of security services or police, application of exclusion clauses, use of detention, or accelerated procedures.
   
• Eight Member States apply the Dublin procedure at the border in certain cases, with five able to implement transfers within the border procedure.
   
• To carry out the procedure at the border and prevent the asylum applicant from entering the territory, seven countries have introduced the possibility of detention, and five countries have introduced the possibility of restrictions on freedom of movement or detention.
   
• Certain vulnerable persons cannot be subject to border procedures in some EMN Member Countries. This includes unaccompanied children and applicants requiring special procedural guarantees, with restrictions depending on whether the necessary safeguards can be provided or specific admissibility or accelerated grounds are met.

The full Inform is attached above. For more detailed country-specific information, please refer to the ad hoc query that was used to collect the data for this Inform.