European member states are calling on Italy to take back 46,000 migrants based on the Dublin Regulation, according to which the migrants are required to return to Italian territory under the responsibility of the Rome government.
European member states, including Germany and France, are calling on Italy to take back 46,000 migrants under the Dublin Regulation. The regulation requires the country of first entrance to take responsibility for asylum seekers. The migrants are those who were identified in other EU countries but had already applied for protection in Italy.
The request was announced by the head of the interior ministry's immigration department, prefect Michele Di Bari, in a hearing before the Lower House's Constitutional Affairs Committee.
Few transfers last year
In 2018, in the face of the 46,000 requests, only 6,574 transfers took place. In the first three months of 2019, the number of so-called "Returning Dubliners" was higher than sea arrivals. There are currently 40,000 requests to examine from Germany and France, followed by the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Sweden, the UK, and Luxembourg.
The opposite situation - irregular foreigners in Italy who have already applied for asylum in another EU country - is markedly lower: 6,000 requests sent in 2018 and 264 transfers organized. That is less than 5 percent of transfer requests that were fulfilled.
Several hosted amid budget slashes
As of May
20, there were 114,176 migrants present in the Italian migrant reception
system. The number of migrants in the reception system has been declining. There were 133,061 migrants in the system onn December 31,
2018, 167,723 on June 1, 2018 and 183,732 on January 1, 2018, according to Di Bari. The decreased number of migrants is accompanied by
a reduction in spending for the reception centers, from 1.675 billion euros in
the 2018 budget to 1.3 billion for 2019. The region of Lombardy hosted the highest
number of migrants in these centers (15,604), followed by Emilia Romagna
(10,569), Lazio (10.257), and Piedmont (9,927).
The majority of migrants are hosted in the various types of reception centers (87,723); with 26,363 in SIPROIMI centers (formerly known as SPRAR), the System of Protection for International Protection Title Holders and Unaccompanied Foreign Minors; and 90 at migrant hotspots. There were 8,342 unaccompanied minors as of March 31, down from the 10,787 of December 31, 2018. The decrease in arrivals has also brought a drop in the number of reception centers. State-run centers have dropped from 15 to 12 in the past year, while the Temporary Reception Centers (CAS) have dropped from 9,282 to 7,593.