Giorgia Meloni was one of the main political sponsors of a policy of “returns” for irregular migrants. Now, as a growing number of EU countries push Rome to take back migrants who entered the bloc through Italy, she is getting a taste of her own medicine.
On Sunday, Ireland became the latest in a growing number of member states to call on Italy, as a country of first entry into the EU, to take back asylum seekers.
It joins Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Finland, Sweden and the Netherlands.
The requests stem from the new EU Pact on Asylum and Migration, which reaffirms a key principle of the Dublin system: the EU country where a non-EU national first enters the bloc and applies for protection should handle their asylum claim.
A few weeks after Meloni took office in 2022, Italy unilaterally suspended the reception of Dublin transfers, citing practical and capacity constraints. The European Commission has considered the move a breach of Italy’s Dublin obligations, a position also upheld by the EU Court of Justice in several rulings.
