Abstract

The situation generated in the European Union by the misnamed «refugee crisis», reveals the degree to which the so-called Common European Asylum System has failed. Many factors have combined, over two decades, with the ultimate result that the right to asylum has been rendered meaningless. To declare the necessity of international protection as a right in the European context, it is interesting to analyse, as this paper proposes, the multiple factors that have come together to prevent the implementation of the Dublin System. The study applies a comparative perspective, using an analysis of the Canadian asylum system. The contrast between certain measures applied to refugees in the European Union and those employed by Canada permits the delineation of future guidelines. The clear objective is to restore a meaningful right to asylum in a humane, just, and efficient European system.__ _Received_: 25 July 2016 _Accepted_: 30 November 2016 _Published online_: 11 December 2017.