February
21, 2025
Dublin Agreements
According to the well-known Dublin Agreements, the country of first arrival is responsible for determining whether migrants meet the requirements for asylum or should be repatriated. The problem lies, on one hand, in the difficulty of making such determinations and, more importantly, in the practical impossibility of mass repatriation: the first country ends up bearing the entire burden. Every Italian government has attempted to overcome the Dublin Agreements, but none have succeeded.
However, one often-overlooked fact must be considered: all countries receive undocumented migrants, and the number of those arriving in Italy by sea is not significantly higher than elsewhere. In the end, if all refugees were redistributed among the various countries, it is not certain that Italy would gain a significant advantage.
Moreover, most migrants do not want to stay in Italy but rather move on to the more prosperous countries of Northern Europe. In the end, many do manage to cross borders and leave Italy.