Iceland is a Nordic island nation situated at the juncture of the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, immediately south of the Arctic Circle and east of Greenland, with no land borders but maritime boundaries adjacent to Norway, Denmark (Faroe Islands) and the United Kingdom (Shetland Isles). Domestic asylum procedures are governed by the Foreign Nationals Act (No. 80/2016), which consolidates entry, stay and removal provisions for all non-nationals and establishes a structured process for international protection claims. Under this Act, applications for asylum may be submitted at any police station or, upon arrival, at Keflavík Airport or the reception centre in Reykjavík. Those seeking international protection in Iceland originate mainly from Ukraine, Venezuela and Palestine, among other regions, reflecting diverse displacement contexts. 

Iceland acceded to the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees in 1955 and to its 1967 Protocol in 1968. In view of the country’s geographic isolation and given the fact that there are no direct flight connections from any main country of origin of asylum-seekers, Iceland is seldom a “first country of asylum.” Consequently, many asylum-seekers who apply for asylum in Iceland are transferred to another Dublin country.