Italy pressed on asylum returns

Finland has now joined the queue of European countries trying to send asylum seekers back to Italy under the EU's new migration rules. That sounds, at first glance, like movement. In practice, it is still mostly paperwork.

Helsinki's Interior Ministry said transfers were "currently being prepared" under the Asylum and Migration Management Regulation, or AMMR, the main legal plank of the EU's 2024 migration pact. The regulation replaced the old Dublin system, which decided which EU state was responsible for examining an asylum claim. Finland gave no figures, no dates and no evidence that anyone had yet been transferred (ANSA, TRT World).

The scorecard so far

The principle is simple enough. If a person enters the EU through Italy and later applies for asylum in Germany, Finland or another member state, the AMMR says Italy should usually take them back and process the claim. Northern and western European governments want that rule enforced. Italy, facing its own pressure at the Mediterranean end of the system, has room to delay or reject requests.

Two months after the rules began applying, the picture is uneven.

Austria is the only country with confirmed results. Vienna says four transfers have been completed since 12 June 2026, with asylum seekers travelling to Italy by train or bus in cases where there was cooperation (ORF). Four people is hardly a system, but it shows the mechanism can work when Rome allows it.

Switzerland is further along than most, but still not across the line. Italian authorities reportedly accepted 51 Swiss take-back requests after 12 June, and Bern booked flights for late August (NZZ, Ticinonews). Whether those flights actually leave is the test.

Germany ran straight into Rome's refusal. As we reported last week, Berlin had planned three returns; Italy rejected all three, saying they related to old cases from before the pact applied (Tagesschau). At a press conference on 19 August, the German government spoke about "coordination", not completed transfers (Bundesregierung).

France and the Netherlands have not joined the push. Paris reportedly decided against forcing the issue while cooperation with Rome on reducing Mediterranean departures was still continuing (ANSA).

Why Italy can say no

The clearest figure comes from the European Commission, the EU's executive arm. Between 12 June and 7 July, eight member states sent Italy 12 transfer requests. Italy refused all of them (Commission assessment, 2EU Brussels).

Rome's position has a legal side and a political side. Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi argues that many of the requests concern people who arrived before the new pact took effect, so the AMMR should not apply to them (Brussels Signal).

The political complaint is more direct. Piantedosi links Germany's transfer requests to German NGO rescue ships operating in the Mediterranean and bringing migrants to Italian ports. From Rome's perspective, Berlin is helping create the caseload and then asking Italy to take it back. Italy also says its reception system has been under pressure since it suspended inbound transfers in December 2022 (Euronews).

The clock as leverage

The regulation gives Italy another source of leverage: time. Under the AMMR, when one state says another is responsible for an asylum claim, it normally has six months to carry out the physical transfer. If that deadline is missed, responsibility returns to the country making the request (CJEU, Shiri case).

That means Italy does not have to win every legal argument. Delay can produce much the same result as refusal.

Finland's announcement widens the dispute beyond a German-Italian row. Austria has managed four cooperative transfers. Germany was blocked. Switzerland has acceptances but no confirmed departures. Finland is preparing cases without saying how many or when. France has stepped back.

This is how EU asylum law is now being tested: through train journeys, refused files, flight bookings and missed deadlines. The Commission, which recorded those 12 refusals in July, will have to say whether Italy's resistance fits the regulation that Rome itself voted to adopt. Each month it waits shifts responsibility back towards the countries that asked Italy to take people in.