Lampedusa: five minutes to understand the migration crisis engulfing Italy

A state of emergency has been in effect in Lampedusa since Wednesday evening. The Italian island is currently facing strong migration pressure. Since the arrival of thousands of people by sea to this islet off the North African coast within a week, far-right Prime Minister Georgia Meloni says the situation is “unsustainable”.

She demanded an urgent visit from European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who is due to travel to Lampedusa on Sunday. Berlin has just suspended its voluntary intake of asylum seekers from the country due to “strong migration pressure” and Rome’s refusal to apply European agreements.

“When we have freedom fighters, people whose lives are under threat in their country, obviously we must continue to welcome them,” Elisabeth Born said in an interview this Saturday, while the day before Emmanuel Macron defended “the duty of the European solidarity” with Italy.

What is the situation on the ground?

Already hundreds of migrants have been flown to Sicily to help the small Mediterranean island, which has welcomed a larger population than its usual population in recent days. Some 8,500 people arrived on 199 boats between Monday and Wednesday, compared with the island’s normal population of just over 6,000, according to the UN migration agency.

For years, Italy has been one of the main gateways for migrants reaching Europe from North Africa by boat. The number of these people has risen sharply in 2023, with nearly 124,000 since January, compared with 65,500 for the same period in 2022, according to the Italian government.

Many were stranded on the island of Lampedusa, where the reception center warned on Wednesday that its capacity risked reaching a “critical threshold”. The Italian Red Cross, which has been running the facilities for fewer than 400 people since June, regretted that more than 6,000 people were now living there.

What are the Dublin Agreements?

These thousands of people will be able to apply for asylum in Italy under the Dublin Accords, the founding text of legal migration policy in Europe. This text applies in all 27 EU countries, as well as Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Their request can only be processed by one European Union (EU) country: the one in which the migrant first set foot.

But this text, according to the authorities of the countries concerned, imposes certain restrictions. Some states, especially since 2015, have faced greater migration pressure than others due to their geographic location. Thus, Greece and Italy welcome a very significant flow of migrants into their territory, although other states of the Union do not share this support on an equitable basis.

As a result of these agreements, many asylum requests are rejected. Some migrants who manage to reach other EU countries, after registering in the country of entry, actually try to apply for asylum in Germany or France, for example, but the latter are refused because they are considered against the law.

This situation thus creates a mass of “lost” migrants at the various borders of Member States. Because the latter, not wanting to return, remain there without a valid residence permit.

What is Italy’s position on migration?

The President of the European Commission, with the strong support of Georgia Meloni, signed an agreement with Tunisia in July to try to reduce the flow of migrants arriving from Tunisian coasts in exchange for financial assistance to the North African country, which is facing serious economic difficulties. . But Giorgia Meloni is accused, in particular by Germany, of not complying with the Dublin agreements and therefore not playing the game.

According to German newspaper Die Welt, the Italian government is no longer accepting back asylum seekers from other countries. “Of the more than 12,400 requests for leave received in Italy this year until the end of August, ten transfers have been carried out so far,” confirmed Maximilian Kall, a spokesman for the Ministry of the Interior, during a government briefing.

Giorgia Meloni, whose far-right Fratelli d’Italia party won legislative elections a year ago on a promise to end mass immigration, insisted on Wednesday that she was not surprised by Berlin’s decision. “The problem of moving is secondary,” she insisted. In her words, “the question (…) is to stop the arrivals in Italy. I still don’t see any concrete answers.”

Germany, which opposes Rome over the management of migrants from Lampedusa, nevertheless appears ready to lend Rome a helping hand on the condition that the relocations planned by the “voluntary mechanism of European solidarity can be put back into action” at any time. if Italy fulfills its obligations to return refugees” under EU rules.

Towards a new “European Pact on Migration and Asylum”?

To “relieve” these countries on the front line, the European Union has been discussing a new protocol of mutual understanding for several years. According to the European Commission proposal, which could be adopted before the European elections in June 2024, the country responsible for the request could be the country where the migrant has family ties, where he worked or studied, or the country that issued the visa. .

Another solution: countries of first arrival will still be responsible for the request, but a state subject to migration “pressure” can request the activation of a “mandatory solidarity mechanism”.

It will be the state of first arrival that will have to take responsibility for the resettlement of refugees or the return of rejected migrants. And if it fails to return migrants to their country of origin within eight months, it will have to welcome them back. There are plans to fast-track asylum claims from some migrants at borders to facilitate their return to their country of origin or transit. Today, only a third of rejected migrants actually leave the EU.

The purpose of this pact is to involve all states by circumventing the stubborn refusal of a number of countries, especially the Visegrad Group countries (Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia), to accept migrants.

Fines for countries that don’t play the game

Brussels is therefore planning “strict controls” at external borders to more quickly exclude migrants deemed unlikely to receive international protection whose processing will be expedited. Thus, 120,000 requests could be processed annually thanks to the creation of 120,000 “beds” at the borders.

A system of sanctions could also be introduced for countries such as Poland and Hungary that refuse to accept their “quota” of asylum seekers, with a fine of €20,000 for each migrant rejected. These amounts will be transferred to a fund managed by the Commission and intended to finance projects related to migration management.