Italy has said it will not take back migrants who reached Europe via its coasts and later travelled to Germany, despite new EU migration agreements.
Tensions between Rome and Berlin sharpened over the weekend. Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini said Italy would not accept the return of any irregular migrants from Germany while German aid groups remain active in the Mediterranean.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government has again criticised German NGOs that rescue refugees and migrants at sea and then bring them to Italian ports. Rome says these operations have placed an unfair burden on Italy for years.
According to the Italian government, 2,200 migrants have been brought ashore in this way so far this year alone. Many of them later travel on to Germany or other EU countries.
The German government, however, points to existing EU rules. Under the current system, asylum claims should generally be made in the first EU country a person enters.
The new European migration pact, which was meant to bring together the bloc’s rules and reduce repeated disputes, has not ended the row. Italy and Germany have argued over the issue throughout the summer.
Salvini escalated his language further at a meeting of his right-wing League party. He said Germany “has no right to send us back even one illegal migrant” as long as ships run by German NGOs continue operating in the Mediterranean and bringing “thousands of illegal migrants” ashore in Italy and Europe.
His position is not isolated in Italy. Supporters of the argument point to international maritime law, under which a ship is subject to the laws of the country whose flag it flies.
They argue that this would mean Germany, rather than Italy, is the first European country entered by migrants rescued by German-flagged vessels. That interpretation is likely to be contested.
A meeting on the dispute is expected soon between Italy’s Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi and his German counterpart Alexander Dobrindt.
