Rome has made clear it does not intend to accept the first cases of asylum seekers Germany has announced it wants to deport to Italy, intensifying a direct confrontation between Rome and Berlin over responsibility for migrants who first entered the European Union illegally through the country.
The development was first reported by Italian newspaper La Repubblica on August 13, 2026. According to the newspaper, citing sources with direct knowledge of the matter, Italian interior minister Matteo Piantedosi spoke by telephone with his German counterpart, Alexander Dobrindt, to inform him of the Italian Government’s position. Within hours, the Italian Interior Ministry sent a formal communication to the German authorities, stating that Italy would not accept the transfers. Il Messaggero reported that the letter was cordial in tone and that Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni had been informed before it was sent.
The Italian communication came just days before Germany’s planned transfer of the first three asylum seekers to Italy, scheduled for August 17, 19 and 20. Il Messaggero identified them as Iraqi national Rania Darezh, Somali national Abdirisaq Warsame Faduma and Afghan national Hotak Samir. These would be the first transfers resulting from Berlin’s decision, reported by La Repubblica on August 9, to resume transfers to Italy under the Dublin rules, after such transfers had been largely blocked since December 2022, when the Italian Dublin Unit told its European counterparts that incoming transfers were suspended for lack of places in the reception system.
Under the Dublin system, responsibility for an asylum application generally falls on the EU member state through which the applicant first entered the bloc, allowing other member states to deport the applicant there.
The first case is Abdirisaq Warsame, a 22-year-old Somali woman, who landed at Lampedusa before moving to Germany on March 31, 2026, settling in the State of Hesse, where her family lives legally. German authorities have also initiated transfer procedures for two other asylum seekers and have already signed the transfer orders, according to Il Fatto Quotidiano.
For Rome, though, the issue goes beyond these three individuals. Sources familiar with the Italian government’s position, who spoke to Brussels Signal, said that Rome does not want to establish a precedent that could lead to a renewed and continuous flow of Dublin transfers from Germany to Italy. The transfers are therefore particularly sensitive: accepting the first cases could, in the Italian Government’s view, pave the way for Germany to systematically return other asylum seekers whose first EU entry was through Italy.
La Repubblica reported that the Interior Ministry had already received two further requests from German authorities, reinforcing Rome’s concern that the three cases could mark the beginning of a broader process.
Germany is expected to increase pressure for the transfer of asylum seekers to Italy, relying on the new EU Migration and Asylum Pact, which entered into full application on June 12, 2026. Berlin made about 35,900 take-back requests in 2025, of which some 23,900 were accepted, yet only about 5,370 transfers were carried out, according to Interior Ministry figures. In the first six months of 2026 it registered 11,745 asylum seekers for whom another member state was responsible.
The Pact is a package of EU laws negotiated by the member states and the European Parliament to overhaul the common asylum system. It replaces the Dublin III Regulation with the new Asylum and Migration Management Regulation (AMMR). In practice, the new framework preserves the core Dublin principle that an EU member state can be responsible for an asylum claim because it was the applicant’s first country of entry. The German Interior Ministry has said Italy and Greece undertook in the autumn of 2025 to apply the Dublin rules again once the new system took effect.
Italy accepted the new EU framework as an EU member state, but Rome is reluctant to apply it to these specific cases. The Italian Government argues that the three cases originated before June 12, when the new system became applicable, and should therefore be handled under the previous arrangements between Italy and Germany rather than being used to launch a renewed flow of transfers under the new rules. Rome has also asked for a compensation mechanism offsetting any returns against migrants brought ashore in Italy by rescue vessels, including those run by German non-governmental organisations, Open reported.
Italy’s acceptance of the new European framework could, though, make it increasingly difficult for Rome to maintain a broader refusal of transfers from Germany or other EU countries once the new system is fully operational. The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled on March 5, 2026 in Case C-458/24 that a member state cannot free itself of its Dublin obligations by unilaterally announcing that it will no longer accept transfers, and that the European Commission or any other member state may bring infringement proceedings against it.
Germany has not indicated that it intends to abandon the planned transfers following Rome’s refusal. On August 12, Il Sole 24 Ore reported that the German Interior Ministry had said it was surprised by the attention the cases had attracted, given the existing cooperation between the two countries on migration. Berlin continued to defend the resumption of Dublin transfers and the implementation of the new European asylum framework.
At the same time, there has been no public German announcement of retaliatory measures against Italy.
