"The new Pact on Migration and Asylum must be implemented, the return of the 'Dubliners' must be operational ." After Italy and Spain, here comes Germany . The Ceuta crisis seems to have reopened Pandora's box on a dossier—immigration—that for a few months in Europe had seemed to remain "dormant." The effects, now, are unpredictable.
And for Italy, the situation is becoming significantly more complicated, with the risk of a ripple even in the coalition between Giorgia Meloni and Friedrich Merz, one of the most solid in Europe . Indeed, the new Migration Pact, which came into force on June 12, addresses more than just external borders and hubs in third countries. The issue of secondary movements, a traditional point of friction between Italy and second-arrival countries like Germany, Austria, and France, is now more rigorously regulated.
"There is no Dubliner to take back from Berlin," sources at the Interior Ministry concluded yesterday evening . "The functioning of the Dublin system is a prerequisite for the success of the Common European Asylum System," and Berlin "expects that, starting from that date, transfers to Italy and Greece will resume," explained a spokesperson for the German Interior Ministry, confirming La Repubblica's anticipation.
According to Germany, the 'amnesty' on secondary movements resulting from the bilateral agreement of autumn 2025 was terminated with the implementation of the new Migration Pact last June . Italy, on the other hand, "considers all alleged 'Dubliners' who arrived in Europe before June 12, 2026, the date the new Migration Pact enters into force, to be eliminated . Furthermore, it is still premature to imagine that there are people who, having arrived in Italy after that date, are currently in other countries" since "there is still too little time to ascertain this," is the thesis leaked by the Interior Ministry, which also emphasizes another point: those arriving after June 12 will have to be compensated by migrants brought to Italy by NGOs, many of which are German.
What is certain is that in an assessment dated July 15, the Commission noted that Rome, since the entry into force of the Migration Pact on June 12, had not yet implemented the rules on the return of "Dubliners," that is, migrants who, after disembarking in Italy, had moved on to another EU member state. "During the first weeks of application of the EU Regulation on Asylum and Migration Management (AMMR), between June 12 and July 7, eight Member States communicated to the Commission information regarding requests for the custody of migrants: 12 transfers were requested from Italy, but were rejected," the Commission explained in the document.
The chess game on migration, in short, risks becoming more complicated for the prime minister. "Meloni is breaking European solidarity to pursue Vannacci's propaganda. The consequence: the Spanish are also closing Schengen, and the Germans are sending back migrants who had already left Italy. Why hurt ourselves?" was Matteo Renzi's attack. "Meloni's decision is disintegrating the EU and hurting Italy," added Riccardo Magi of + Europa.
(Unioneonline)
