Italy accused of dumping refugees into Germany
The German state of Bavaria on Friday accused Italy of failing to provide for a burgeoning number of asylum-seekers on its territory, breaching European Union rules and dumping the problem on other members of the bloc.
Angela Merkel
Italy faced similar accusations from France, Germany and others in 2011, when it faced another surge in refugee numbers following Arab Spring uprisings.
“It is a fact that in many cases Italy intentionally does not take either personal data or fingerprints, which means that the refugees can apply for asylum in another country without returning to Italy,” Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann told dpa.
Herrmann – a member of the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU), the Bavarian-based associate party of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats – said that there had been a jump in asylum applications in his state, one of Germany’s wealthiest.
A single-day record of 319 was registered on Thursday.
“One reason is that a significant portion of the incoming refugees in Italy travel onto Germany without intentionally intending to do so,” he said.
There was no immediate reaction from Rome authorities, which have been complaining for months about being left alone by EU partners in facing a record influx of boat migrants from North Africa and elsewhere.
On Tuesday, Interior Minister Angelino Alfano spoke of “an unacceptable ping-pong at the expense of Italy,” as he urged the European Commission to back Italy’s call for greater burden sharing at EU level.
In March, the head of the UN Refugee Agency, Antonio Guterres, recognized Germany as “the largest recipient” of refugees among industrialized nations. Last year it received 127,000 asylum applications, against 28,000 in Italy, EU figures show.
But Italy is under increasing pressure: last week it reported that more than 100,000 migrants had landed on its shores since January 1, compared to less than 43,000 in 2013. Most of them have the right to claim asylum.
On Friday, the Italian coast guard said 288 migrants had been picked up at sea, in addition to another 355 that were intercepted earlier in the week.
Italian officials have admitted that the decision to increase search-and-rescue patrols in the Mediterranean, after more than 360 people died off Lampedusa in October, has encouraged more migrants to attempt sea crossings.
In response, Rome has asked for the EU’s border agency, Frontex, to take over the boat patrols, which cost 9 million euros (12 million dollars) a month. It also wants incoming asylum-seekers to be distributed among the bloc’s member states.
“Documents giving refugee status should be valid across the entire Schengen area. This is our objective,” the head of migratory affairs at the interior ministry, Mario Morcone, told the Corriere della Sera daily on Wednesday.
Herrmann recalled that current EU asylum policy is different: under the 2003 Dublin II agreement, incoming migrants can claim international protection only in the first EU country they set foot on.
Italy and other southern nations complain that system places undue stress on them, while northern EU states with more generous asylum regimes, like Germany and Sweden, fear they would be swamped if the rules were changed.
“The country of first entry is responsible for the implementation of asylum procedures,” Herrmann insisted.
And since Italy receives EU funding to handle the problem, “the other EU states can therefore demand a corresponding sense of solidarity from Italy, namely following the common European asylum system, to which the EU has agreed to,” he said.
“This is even more true because the crisis in the Middle East as well as the brutal violence of Islamic State (IS) is likely to add to the refugee pressure on Europe,” Herrmann concluded.
GNA
PDC
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