Italy rejects migrant returns from Germany, threatening EU asylum pact

Stand-off over European asylum rules

Disagreements between Rome and Berlin over the enforcement of European asylum policy escalated after Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini refused to accept any migrant transfers from Germany. Under the reformed Common European Asylum System (GEAS), which took effect in June 2026, the member state where an irregular migrant first sets foot in the European Union remains responsible for processing their asylum application. Germany and six other partner countries plan to resume transfer requests to Mediterranean border states. Salvini rejected these moves during a meeting of his Lega party, linking Italy's refusal directly to the operations of German humanitarian rescue vessels in the Mediterranean.

Germany has no right to send us back even a single illegal immigrant as long as German NGO ships are operating in the Mediterranean to bring thousands of illegal immigrants ashore in Italy and Europe.

Maritime legal dispute and vessel detention

The Italian government, led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, maintains that the laws of the flag state apply on board rescue ships operating under maritime conventions. Rome contends that when German non-governmental organizations pick up migrants at sea, Germany serves as the de facto country of first arrival rather than Italy. Italian authorities enforced this policy by impounding the German rescue ship Sea-Watch 5 for 45 days after it docked in Naples on 13 August 2026 with six rescued people on board. The Italian Interior Ministry imposed a fine on the organization, stating that the crew breached rescue coordination protocols, while Sea-Watch announced plans to challenge the detention in court. Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi and German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt plan to meet to discuss migration cooperation.

Disputed transfer numbers

Official Italian records show that Rome has rejected approximately 80,000 transfer requests from other European countries since 2023, citing structural exhaustion in its national reception centers. Italian migration specialist Matteo Villa calculated that Italy accepted only 15 transferred individuals from Germany since 2023, despite Berlin seeking to return roughly 35,000 asylum seekers. Since the start of 2026, Italian Interior Ministry records indicate that Italy accepted three migrants in total from European partner states, with zero arriving from Germany. Italian government data also notes that German NGO ships brought 2,200 migrants into Italian ports in 2026. The International Organization for Migration reported that at least 872 people have died or gone missing along the central Mediterranean route in 2026.

Domestic political pressure and system risks

The confrontation has drawn stern warnings from German lawmakers who fear the collapse of the newly implemented asylum pact. Alexander Throm, the domestic policy spokesperson for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, warned that sustained Italian obstruction would compel Germany to intensify border checks.

If Italy maintains this stance, it blows up the new Common European Asylum System (GEAS), which has only been in force for a few weeks.

Throm warned that such measures would trigger a chain reaction of border closures across other European countries. In Rome, Meloni faces domestic political competition from the right as retired army general Roberto Vannacci and his Futuro Nazionale party poll slightly above 7%, surpassing Salvini's Lega. With Italian national elections approaching next year and other member states such as Austria, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, and Finland preparing transfer requests, the dispute remains unresolved.