From 2013, with Letta, to 2022, with Draghi, Italy has taken back 35,440 non-EU citizens from other European states on the basis of the Dublin agreement. So the opposition that attacks the prime minister because he welcomes just 3 foreigners has no reason to do so
“It’s a boomerang.” The opposition’s record broke. The attempt to Elly Schlein, Giuseppe Conte and comrades is to connect the announcements of different countries, all ready to send foreigners back to us Dublinersto the Italian government’s decision to suspend Schengen with Spain.
Events clearly unrelated, as the Minister of the Interior reiterated yesterday, Matteo Piantedosi. So much so that Madrid, like Paris, will not join the nations intending to return to us the migrants who, after having applied for asylum here, had moved elsewhere. The French gendarmerie is already chasing back droves of “undesirables” who try to pass through Liguria. And not even that of the Iberians is generosity: if anything, it is the awareness of being on the same boat as us, dealing with the same boats. For Spain, the landing place of the Africans, the balance between arrivals and departures would remain negative even if the measures on Dubliners were applied; rather than sending them away, therefore, it is important to insist on the compensation mechanisms for landings, envisaged by the EU Pact. And claimed by Giorgia Meloni: on Facebook yesterday, the prime minister underlined that “the new rules protect the states of first entry much more” and facilitate “accelerated repatriations”.
The European framework and pressures on borders
Germany, Austria, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland and, as of yesterday, the Netherlands and Ireland, are not reacting at all to the restoration of border controls wanted by Rome for those coming from Spain. Indeed, the executives of those countries, on the crisis of Ceutathey came much closer to the positions of Palazzo Chigi than to those of Moncloa. The point is that every European leader faces public opinions eager to tighten flows, as well as increasingly strong sovereignist parties. The German Chancellor, Friedrich Merzis the most exposed: it risks witnessing the triumph of Alternative für Deutschland in Saxony-Anhalt, in the state elections at the beginning of September. Ergo, every head of state wants to demonstrate to citizens that he is doing something. This also applies to Amsterdam, which confirmed the existence of an agreement between Interior Ministers, without however specifying whether the Dutch want to bring back to Italy only immigrants who arrived after 12 June, the date of entry into force of the new EU regime, or also those who fell under the previous legislation.
Those whose relocation Meloni has denied since she took office. Saving us 80,000 more guests.
“What would a left-wing government have done?”, she replied on social media to those who accused her of a flop. “He probably would have granted those requests.”
The numbers prove her right.
The historical balance sheet of readmissions
When the phenomena that today militate in the broad field were in command, our borders were a sieve. The progressive executives, to the Dubliners, have spread the red guide. Between 2013 and 2016, straddling the era of Enrico Letta And Matteo Renzi – the one who traded open ports for EU flexibility for 80 euros – we took back almost 12,000. In 2017, with the dem Paolo Gentiloni5,948. In 2018, year one of Count One, 6,468: it was the historical record. In 2019, with the advent of the Giallorossi, 5,987; 1,367 the following year. A drastic drop, attributable to Covid. Already in 2021, below Mario Draghitransfers began to increase again: 1,468; 2,315 in 2022. Total over nine years: 35,440. Only Meloni, in office since 22 October 2022, stopped admissions at the end of that year.
There is no question of denying that the Pact, which has been in place since June, contains some insidious busillis. We have obtained the facilitation of accelerated expulsion procedures at the border and a substantial green light to Albania model (as well as the Mauritania model of Pedro Sanchez…), although the bilateral agreements to create hubs in third countries are still mostly to be built. And we have managed to attenuate the rigidity of the old Dublin regulations, both thanks to the solidarity mechanisms for the nations facing the Mediterranean, and thanks to the absence of automatic mechanisms, which allows any request for relocation to be examined and possibly rejected. A climate of cooperation broken, look, by the protégé of Brussels, Peter Magyar: Budapest, the Hungarian prime minister said, will not accept any illegal immigrants.
Eurostat estimates and the Interior Ministry’s line
After that, the Dubliners’ gabola, whose asylum requests are examined by Rome, remains. And the numbers may not remain as small as those of the small cases being discussed in recent days. Eurostat estimates that there are 24,152 pending applications for the movement of migrants. If we subtract from them the approximately 14,000 from France and Germany, dating back to before 12 June 2026 and in theory remedied last December, there are still 10,000 potential entries from the European Union partners at stake.
Given the evolution of the story, it is plausible that the owner of the Interior Ministry do not limit yourself to a bilateral with your German counterpart, Alexander Dobrindt.
Piantedosi underlined that, “of 50 requests” received, “only three people appear to have presented themselves in Italy”.
Comments that were eloquent in their own way then leaked out from the ministry: «It should not be underestimated», accredited sources noted, «that very probably the majority of these Dubliners could have a personal history that makes them less willing to return and stay in Italy and that, therefore, they could independently try to return to the countries from which they come». Read between the lines: in the worst case scenario, our authorities could turn a blind eye to the “secondary movements” of the returned migrants. If others play dirty, we will too.
Welcome to the EU: European, yes, but very little Union.
