Italy has said it will seek compensation from Germany over migrants brought to Italian shores by German non-governmental organisations (NGOs) operating in the Mediterranean, interior minister Matteo Piantedosi said. The announcement comes amid growing diplomatic tensions between Rome and Berlin.
Italy has published figures showing that German NGOs accounted for more than half of the migrants who entered the country irregularly after being brought ashore by privately operated vessels since October 2022.
Piantedosi spoke before the Parliamentary Committee for the Implementation of the Schengen Agreement at Palazzo San Macuto in Rome on August 13. He was commenting on Germany’s requests to begin transferring to Italy asylum seekers who had previously entered the EU through Italian territory.
“We will put them into compensation with the thousands of migrants that foreign NGOs bring us every year,” he said. He added that he had already written to his German counterpart over the issue.
Italy’s Interior Ministry published figures showing that around 42,300 people illegally reached Italian shores aboard privately operated rescue vessels between October 22, 2022 and August 13, 2026. More than half, approximately 22,500, were transported to Italian ports by German NGOs, or 53 per cent of all NGO landings.
A further 4,500 migrants were brought to Italy by organisations from other European countries operating vessels flying the German flag. Taken together, organisations or vessels connected to Germany accounted for around 27,000 arrivals, almost two-thirds of the total.
The figures cover the period since Giorgia Meloni’s Government took office in October 2022. Rome then suspended most incoming transfers of asylum seekers under the EU’s Dublin system, creating a major obstacle for Germany and other member states seeking returns.
The framework was established under the Dublin III Regulation and entered into force in 2013. It sets out which member state is responsible for examining an asylum application, generally the country through which the applicant first entered the EU.
The issue has now returned to the centre of the European migration debate. The EU Pact on Migration and Asylum entered into application on June 12, 2026.
Adopted in 2024, the Pact replaced the Dublin III framework with the new Asylum and Migration Management Regulation. It retains the core principle that responsibility for an asylum claim can fall on the member state of first entry.
Germany has sought to resume transfers to Italy under the new framework. A German interior ministry spokesman told Italian news agency ANSA that Berlin expected transfers to Italy and Greece to resume from that date.
Rome rejected the first transfers Germany sought to make, though. Three asylum seekers were due to be transferred on August 19, but the Italian Government formally informed Berlin on August 13 that it would not accept the cases.
All three therefore remained in Germany. Italy’s justification was that their entry into Italy occurred before June 12, 2026, when the new Pact entered into application.
Rome maintains those cases fall under a bilateral understanding reached with Berlin in December 2025 that wrote off the backlog of pending cases. Berlin reads that understanding as covering only the period to the end of 2025.
The European Commission urged Rome on July 15 to remove the remaining obstacles to transfers. It noted that eight member states had asked Italy to take back 12 applicants between June 12 and July 7 and that all had been refused.
The dispute is more complicated for future cases. Italy has accepted the new EU framework, so Rome will have less room to oppose transfers where it is formally determined to be responsible for a claim.
This is why Rome has tied the issue of future transfers to compensation. The Italian Government has not publicly announced a fixed sum to be paid by Germany for every asylum seeker transferred.
Piantedosi’s proposal is instead a compensation mechanism involving the countries whose flags are flown by NGO vessels that bring thousands of migrants to Italian ports every year. Germany is the main country concerned.
In his August 13 remarks, he said vessels flying the German flag had brought 2,200 people to Italy since the beginning of 2026, including more than 500 since June 12. EU asylum law does not make a state responsible for a claim simply because its flag was flown by the rescuing vessel.
The role of German NGOs has consequently become a political flashpoint. Deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini has called for Germany to take back German NGO vessels operating in the Mediterranean.
On August 11, speaking on the sidelines of an inspection of railway works at Rome’s Pigneto station, Salvini said: “We invite our German friends to bring back home all the German NGO ships that have taken Italy for a refugee camp.” He also said Germany should remove the German flag from the vessels before expecting Italy to accept asylum seekers.
Few transfers have taken place in practice. Germany filed some 35,000 take-back requests over three years and 15 people were moved during Meloni’s time in office, La Repubblica has reported.
For Italy, the main political objective is to press other European states to control their own organisations and reduce arrivals on Italian shores. Since it may have fewer grounds to refuse transfers in future cases, the government has a strong incentive to minimise new irregular arrivals.
