Rising tensions between Italy and the main European Union countries over the implementation of the new EU Pact on Migration and Asylum.
Ireland has become the seventh member state to call for asylum seekers to be returned to the countries of first entry and for strict compliance with the rules on secondary movements.
The most heated confrontation remains with Germany. While Berlin is pushing for readmissions of so-called 'Dublin cases' – migrants who arrived in one member state and then moved to another without having lodged an asylum application – Italy is strongly opposed to the activities in the Mediterranean of German NGO vessels.
In Naples, Sea Watch 5 has been hit with a 45-day administrative detention order and a 7,500-euro fine, accused of failing to cooperate with the Libyan coastguard, it emerged on Sunday.
Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi has reiterated that operations must be coordinated exclusively by the competent states, while the NGO highlights the dangers posed by the Libyan authorities and announces an appeal.
