Germany announced on Wednesday that it was suspending the voluntary reception of asylum seekers from Italy, provided for by the European agreements, due to “strong migratory pressure” and Rome’s refusal to apply these same agreements.
The German government informed Rome of its decision “at the end of August”, a spokesperson for the Interior Ministry told AFP.
This suspension “until further notice” concerns the “voluntary European solidarity mechanism” which organizes the relocation of asylum seekers from the country of arrival in the EU to other voluntary Member States, in order to relieve States like Italy and Greece, which are gateways to Europe.
Berlin explains this decision by “the current strong migratory pressure towards Germany” as well as “the persistent suspension of transfers from Dublin by certain member states”, including Italy, which “reinforces the major challenges for Germany in terms of reception and accommodation capacities”.
The Dublin regulation, very controversial among the Twenty-seven, provides that the country of arrival of a migrant in the EU processes his asylum application.
“Stop arrivals in Italy”
However, wrote the German newspaper Die Welt, the Italian government of Giorgia Meloni no longer takes back asylum seekers who want to transfer it from other countries, having informed its partners in December 2022 that Italy no longer had sufficient reception capacity.
“Out of more than 12,400 requests for care made to Italy this year until the end of August, ten transfers have been carried out so far,” confirmed Maximilian Kall, spokesperson for the Ministry of the Interior , during a government press briefing.
Giorgia Meloni, whose far-right Fratelli d’Italia party won the legislative elections a year ago on the promise of putting an end to mass immigration, assured Wednesday that she was not surprised by the Berlin decision.
“The problem of relocation is secondary,” she insisted in an interview which will be broadcast on Wednesday and extracts of which were published by Italian press agencies.
” The question […] is to stop arrivals in Italy. I still don’t see any concrete answers,” she said.
She reiterated her call for more help from the EU, adding: “Our host sites [des migrants] are full.”
” Critical threshold “
Italy has for years been one of the main gateways for migrants going by boat from North Africa to Europe.
The number of these people arriving by this route on Italian territory has jumped this year to almost 124,000 since January, compared to 65,500 during the same period in 2022, according to government data.
Many end up on the island of Lampedusa, where the reception center warned on Wednesday that its capacity risked reaching a “critical threshold”.
The Italian Red Cross, which has managed these facilities designed for fewer than 400 people since June, deplored the fact that more than 6,000 are now housed there.
Under the voluntary relocation mechanism, Germany has so far accepted the transfer of 1,700 asylum seekers who arrived in southern Europe, out of the 3,500 people it has committed to welcoming.
The subject is also becoming very sensitive, against a backdrop of the rise of the far right in the polls and the increase in illegal immigration for several months.
“Today we are faced with a very tense situation in many municipalities in Germany,” insisted the spokesperson for the Ministry of the Interior.