Meloni: “The new migration and asylum pact and Schengen are two completely different things”

“Schengen and the Pact on Migration and Asylum are two completely different things and have nothing to do with one another.” This is what Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni wrote on social media, responding to Elly Schlein and all the other opposition figures who have been attacking her in recent hours over the issue of ‘Dublin cases’. For several days now, many European countries, under the new Pact on Migration and Asylum, have declared that they will resume procedures to send migrants back to Italy, the country of first entry. Today, the Netherlands joined Germany, Sweden, Finland, Austria and Switzerland. The only Member States to have said no, as of yesterday, were France and Spain.

In recent hours, several politicians on the left have linked the resumption of deportations in our country to European retaliation for closing the Schengen border with Spain. But the Prime Minister herself denies this: “Elly Schlein speaks of a ‘boomerang effect’ and an alleged failure by the Government to manage migrants. But before engaging in propaganda, it would be useful to understand the difference between the issues at hand.” She adds: “It is precisely the new Pact that marks a positive turning point for Italy in the management of so-called ‘Dublin’ migrants.” In her view, “the new rules offer much greater protection to countries of first entry when it comes to asylum claims” and “with the strengthening of the ‘safe third country’ principle sought by Italy, it will be easier to carry out accelerated returns”.

The Prime Minister then spoke of the requests that have been dealt with in recent years, since 2023: “With regard to the situation prior to these changes, this government has opposed the application of rules that were unreasonably punitive for us and, in fact, from 2023 to the present day, Italy has rejected around 80,000 requests for the transfer of responsibility from other Member States”. She goes on to claim credit whilst attacking her opponents: “It is thanks to this government’s firm stance that our country has not simply passively accepted everything other states have asked of us. What would a left-wing government have done? It would probably have acceded to those requests, further exacerbating the pressure on our reception system and creating even more problems in managing migration flows.”

According to Meloni, “the priority for Italy remains, in any case, the fight against mass illegal immigration, not simply deciding how to distribute migrants across Europe. And we will continue to work to drastically reduce irregular arrivals: by strengthening Europe’s external borders, cooperating with countries of origin and transit, combating traffickers and implementing a more effective repatriation policy.” She concludes: “This is the path the Government will continue to follow.”