Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni helped make the return of irregular migrants a central part of Europe’s tougher migration policy. Now, however, the same rules are putting growing pressure on her government.
Ireland has become the latest European country to ask Italy to take back asylum seekers who first entered the European Union through Italian territory. Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Finland, Sweden and the Netherlands have made similar demands.
The requests are based on the new EU Pact on Asylum and Migration, which came into force in June 2026. It confirms a key principle of the Dublin system: the EU country where a non EU citizen first enters and seeks protection is normally responsible for handling the asylum application.
Meloni’s government suspended the reception of Dublin transfers soon after taking office in 2022, citing a lack of space and practical difficulties. The European Commission viewed the decision as a breach of Italy’s obligations, a position supported by several rulings from the EU Court of Justice, as reported by The Euro News.
The new pact makes returns easier. It replaces the previous formal take back request with a simpler notification procedure. This means the country responsible for the first arrival no longer has to formally approve every transfer—an important change because Italy rarely accepted such requests in the past.
The pact also includes a solidarity system under which migrants are relocated between member states. But the numbers remain small. In 2026, only 8,878 people are expected to be moved from countries under strong migratory pressure, including Italy, Greece, Spain, Cyprus and Malta. Last year, more than 66,000 migrants arrived in Italy by sea, while Frontex recorded nearly 178,000 irregular crossings into the EU.
Meloni has defended the new rules, saying they give first-arrival countries greater protection and make accelerated returns easier. Yet the policy has created an uncomfortable reversal: countries further north are now seeking to send migrants back to Italy.
Spain and France are the main exceptions, having rejected Dublin transfers to Italy while also criticising Meloni’s proposed return centres in Albania. Italy’s plan has faced repeated legal challenges from Italian judges.
The dispute is reviving tensions between Mediterranean countries, which receive many new arrivals, and northern destination states. Italian officials also accuse Germany based rescue organisations of encouraging migration, an allegation the groups reject.
With migration becoming a major election issue across Europe, the argument over responsibility is likely to grow. For Meloni, the new rules have become a political boomerang: the policy she promoted to protect Europe’s borders is now forcing Italy to carry a larger share of the burden.
