Germany halts relocation of migrants arriving in Italy

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD/S&D) has suspended the Voluntary Solidarity Mechanism (VSM) regarding asylum applicants because of Rome’s refusal to implement the Dublin Agreement, the German Interior Ministry confirmed on Wednesday.

In 2022, 13 EU countries, including France and Germany, agreed to commit to the VSM, under which they would voluntarily take in irregular migrants applying for asylum in Mediterranean countries at the EU’s external borders. Faeser was one of the driving forces behind the agreement.

The German government “informed Italy at the end of August” that Germany would suspend the selection of migrants for relocation until further notice, the Interior Ministry told Die Welt, citing “high migration pressure in Germany” and Italy’s “continued suspension of Dublin extraditions” as the reasons.

The Italian government, however, had informed EU governments in December 2022 that “for sudden technical reasons linked to a lack of capacity to accept migrants”, it would, for the moment, no longer accept returns of migrants to Italy under the so-called Dublin Regulation, Welt reported.

“If Italy refuses to accept returns under the Dublin agreement, the Meloni government cannot expect Germany to proactively accept refugees from Italy,” Hakan Demir, an MP and deputy speaker on migration of Faeser’s SPD, told Euractiv.

Under the Dublin system, asylum seekers’ claims must be examined by the EU country where they first register. As border crossings increase, this has put great pressure on countries at the EU’s external border, where most migrants arrive.

However, Germany is currently taking in twice as many refugees per capita as Italy, Demir said, adding that current numbers would not be overwhelming if the EU were “united and acting in solidarity”.

Meanwhile, the Greens, one of the SPD’s junior partners in Germany’s three-way coalition, appeared frustrated in the face of the recent developments.

“The solidarity mechanism is an important impulse (…) which shows that EU states are prepared to move towards relocating refugees – that is the puzzle to be solved, and at the moment it’s regressing again,” Julian Pahlke, a Green MP who has previously participated in rescue missions in the Mediterranean, told Euractiv.

Faeser’s decision also casts doubt on the feasibility of the currently negotiated EU migration deal.

The deal has also been a point of contention among the German coalition. Many Green politicians have been fiercely critical of the proposed solution, which includes forced internment of asylum applicants by the EU border.

“If not even Germany voluntarily agrees to relocate migrants, it’s going to be increasingly difficult to reach an agreement at the European level,” Pahlke said.

(Nick Alipour | Euractiv.de)