Italy Blocks Germanys First Illegal Immigrant Returns Under New EU Asylum Rules

Germany’s first bid in nearly four years to return illegal migrants to Italy collapsed this week after Rome formally refused to take them back, opening a dispute between two of the European Union’s biggest countries two months after its new asylum rules took effect.The first transfer, of a 22-year-old Somali woman due to be flown back on Aug. 19, did not go ahead. The woman, who illegally entered Italy’s Lampedusa island in March before crossing illegally into Germany to join relatives, had been taken in a day earlier, on Aug. 18, by an evangelical church-run facility in Nuremberg, Italian news agency ANSA reported. The Church’s president said she would stay until Berlin abandons the plan.There is no legal basis for Protestant and Catholic churches to harbor illegal migrants in Germany, but the practice has traditionally been tolerated by the authorities, with police usually refraining from entering church premises.On the evening of Aug. 19, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani wrote on X that he had spoken by phone with his German counterpart, Johann Wadephul, “in the customary spirit of friendship.”Tajani wrote that migration is now the priority of the dialogue with Berlin, citing shared concern over the migrant surge in Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta, and “maximum protection of Europe’s external borders.”Berlin Invokes the New PactThe standoff erupted on Aug. 9, when the Italian daily La Repubblica revealed Berlin’s decision to resume so-called Dublin transfers, which send asylum seekers back to the EU country they first entered.A German Interior Ministry spokesman told the paper that “a functioning Dublin system is a prerequisite” for the European asylum reform’s success and expects transfers to Italy and Greece to resume.Three returns were scheduled for Aug. 17, 19, and 20, involving Iraqi, Somali, and Afghan nationals, according to the Rome daily Il Messaggero.Contacted by The Epoch Times, the German Federal Ministry of the Interior struck a conciliatory tone.“Germany and Italy work together closely and in a spirit of trust on matters of migration policy,” ministry spokesman Björn Bowinkelmann said on Aug. 19, before the phone call between the German and Italian foreign ministers. “The consultations on the implementation of the European asylum reform take place in an open and partnership-based exchange.”The EU’s Pact on Migration and Asylum became applicable on June 12, replacing the Dublin Regulation while keeping the principle that the country of first entry normally handles asylum claims.Berlin argues that in the fall of 2025 Italy and Greece committed in bilateral agreements to apply the transfer rules again from that date, a reading the German government confirmed to parliament in February.Rome Says Slate Was Wiped CleanItaly rejects that interpretation for anyone who arrived before June 12.Interior Ministry sources told ANSA there are “no Dublin migrants to take back from Germany,” arguing that a December 2025 agreement with Berlin settled the older cases.On Aug. 13, after Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi called his German counterpart, Alexander Dobrindt, saying Rome sent Berlin a formal note refusing the three transfers, La Repubblica reported.Italy largely suspended incoming Dublin transfers in December 2022, citing a saturated reception system.Since Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni took office, Italy has granted only 15 transfers out of some 35,000 take-back requests Germany has filed, per figures reported by La Repubblica.A European Commission assessment adopted on July 16 found Italy had refused all 12 transfers requested by eight member states in the pact’s opening weeks, while Greece accepted all eight it received, and urged Rome to “remove all the remaining impediments as a matter of priority.“Rome has also turned Berlin’s first-entry logic back on Germany.Italian Interior Ministry figures, reported by Euronews, show German-operated NGO vessels brought some 22,500 of the 42,338 migrants disembarked in Italy by NGOs since October 2022, including 2,200 this year and 500 since the pact took effect.The ministry wants those arrivals counted against future transfers and demands financial compensation, while Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini urged Berlin and Madrid to “rein in” these NGOs.Francesco Giubilei, president of the Italian conservative think tank Nazione Futura and a former special adviser to Meloni’s government, told The Epoch Times that Rome is seeking a negotiated solution but views the German vessels as an issue.“From our point of view, every migrant who entered Italy on a boat belonging to a German NGO is a migrant we do not want,” he said.AfD Surge Looms Over Merz’s PartyGiubilei said relations between Meloni and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz remain good, pointing instead to the rise of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) Party.Berlin’s position “stems from internal politics: the growth of the AfD,” and in a September state election this party could win, he said. “The government therefore has to show … that it is strong on migration.”The party leads polls for the Sept. 6 state election in Saxony-Anhalt at about 41 percent, roughly double Merz’s Christian Democrats.However, “the solution is not the redistribution of migrants from one country to another,” Giubilei said, “but cooperation between European governments to collectively fight illegal immigration and expel migrants, rather than doing what Pedro Sánchez’s government did in Spain in legalizing hundreds of thousands of migrants.”