The Ceuta crisis seems to have reopened Pandora’s box on the immigration dossier that had remained under the radar in Europe for some time. And for Italy, the situation is becoming significantly more complicated. Because after the diplomatic crisis with Spain, a front has opened with Germany.
At the center of the friction between Giorgia Meloni and Friedrich Merz is the issue of the so-called “Dubliners,” that is, asylum seekers who landed on our country’s coasts and, instead of staying in the Peninsula, crossed the Alps and went to Germany. For years, the issue of secondary movements (i.e., the passage to Germany of migrants who landed in Italy, called “Dubliners” after the 2003 Dublin regulation) has been at the center of concerns for German center-right politicians, today more than ever pressured by the far-right AfD, which is growing in the polls.
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This summer the topic becomes politically very sensitive because both Meloni and Merz are heading towards very important electoral appointments: while Italy is heading towards the general elections, in Germany voting takes place on September 6 in Saxony-Anhalt, and on September 20 in Berlin and in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
To implement his strategy, the German chancellor has leveraged the new asylum rules that Europe has adopted.
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The new Pact
The EU Pact on Migration and Asylum, in force since June 12 after being approved in December 2025, introduced new rules for asylum seekers. The key is the Regulation on asylum and migration management (AMMR), which replaces the Dublin III regulation but retains its fundamental principle, namely: the asylum application remains the responsibility of the country of first entry, except for family ties, visas, or other specific criteria.
For a first-arrival country like Italy, the constraint becomes heavier because the responsibility linked to irregular entry increases from 12 to 20 months; it remains 12 months for arrivals following search and rescue operations at sea. In summary, Italian responsibility lasts longer and, if the person hides, transfer remains possible up to three years.
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