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Dublin returns disputed
Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni defended her migration course as Germany and other European countries pressed for transfers back to Rome of so-called “Dublin cases,” while Rome rejected them.
““The new rules significantly protect the countries of first entry with regard to asylum applications,””
Meloni wrote that the new EU asylum and migration pact is a “positive turning point” and said “the new rules significantly protect the countries of first entry with regard to asylum applications,” framing the dispute as about policy rather than retaliation.
The background is the Dublin Regulation, under which “every migrant must file an asylum application in the EU country that they first entered,” and the planned returns have drawn criticism from left-wing opposition.
In the same dispute, Euronews reported that Eurostat counted 109,427 transfer requests sent to Rome between 2023 and 2025, describing the pressure as a potential “boomerang” for Meloni’s government.
Schlein calls it boomerang
Opposition leader Elly Schlein of the Social Democratic PD called the latest development a “blatant boomerang,” linking it to Italy’s border controls with Spain following the influx of tens of thousands of migrants to the Spanish North African exclave Ceuta.
Meloni rejected Schlein’s criticism in her post and accused her of mixing “the suspension of the Schengen Agreement with Spain and the consequences of the new EU asylum and migration pact.”
The dispute also runs through numbers cited by Meloni and others, with DIE WELT saying Rome has rejected “around 80,000 take-back requests from other member states” since 2023.
Euronews added that Sweden confirmed to ANSA it intends to “apply the rules as set out” in the new EU Pact on Asylum and Migration, which entered into force on 12 June, while Spain and France distanced themselves from sending migrants back to the country of first entry.
Next steps and pressure
As the EU pact’s timeline tightens, Euronews said the new Pact extends responsibility for the country of first arrival for the asylum application to 20 months and that “the vast majority of asylum seekers should know the outcome of their application within 12 weeks.”
“the vast majority of asylum seekers should know the outcome of their application within 12 weeks.”
ANSA Latina reported that Ireland joined the list of EU countries applying the Pact on Migration, while it said that in the case of Dublin “in 2025 it filed fewer than 2,000 applications, with no transfers.”
In parallel, the European Commission’s monitoring is framed as decisive, with ANSA Latina quoting that the Commission wrote Italy “must urgently remove all remaining obstacles” and ensure transfers are carried out “in accordance with the Customs and Refugee Transfer Regulation (RAMRR).”
The stakes are also described through Italy’s confrontation with Germany over costs and responsibility, with Euronews reporting that Italy’s Interior Ministry published figures saying German humanitarian organizations transported about 22,500 migrants to Italian ports since Meloni took office in October 2022.