Italy rejects Germany’s planned deportations of migrants
Italy has formally told Germany that it will not accept the first asylum seekers Berlin planned to transfer back under the EU’s Dublin system, escalating a growing dispute between the two countries over responsibility for migrants who first entered the EU through Italy.
The planned transfers involve three asylum seekers who were due to be sent from Germany to Italy on August 17, 19 and 20. The Italian government informed German authorities that it would reject the transfers, with Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi reportedly discussing the issue with his German counterpart, Alexander Dobrindt.
The cases come after Germany announced that it would resume Dublin transfers to Italy following a long period in which such returns were largely suspended. Italy had stopped accepting incoming Dublin transfers in December 2022, citing problems with reception capacity and the availability of accommodation for transferred asylum seekers.
Under the Dublin system, an EU member state can generally request that an asylum seeker be transferred back to the country considered responsible for examining their application. In many cases, that responsibility falls on the country where the person first entered the EU. Italy and Greece are particularly affected because they are major entry points for migrants crossing the Mediterranean.
Rome is reportedly concerned that accepting the first cases could create a precedent for thousands of future transfers from Germany. Italian officials fear that Germany could begin systematically returning asylum seekers whose first entry into the EU was recorded in Italy, placing additional pressure on the country’s already heavily used reception system.
Germany, meanwhile, is expected to continue pushing for transfers under the EU’s new Migration and Asylum Pact, which became fully applicable on June 12, 2026. German authorities made around 35,900 take-back requests to other EU countries in 2025, with approximately 23,900 accepted, but only about 5,370 actual transfers were carried out.
The confrontation highlights the continuing difficulty of enforcing a common European asylum system. While Germany wants greater use of the Dublin rules to return asylum seekers to countries deemed responsible for their claims, Italy’s refusal threatens to reopen a long-running dispute over how responsibility for migrants should be shared across the EU.