Tuesday

19th Mar 2024

Italy's 'nuclear option' on migrants unravels

  • People head to EU states that offer better protection and reception (Photo: Alice Latta)

Italy will likely meet a legal blockade if the country pursues its reported plans to issue temporary travel visas for migrants.

The Times newspaper said on Saturday (15 July) that senior government officials want to use a so-called "nuclear option", to grant migrants stuck in Italy the right to move to other EU states.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Get the EU news that really matters

Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

But the proposal is based on an obscure EU directive that can only be activated by a qualified majority decision in the Council of the EU, representing member states, and based on a proposal by the European Commission.

Neither one of these is likely to happen.

The EU's temporary protection directive was created after the 1999 Kosovo crisis, to provide blanket protection to large numbers of people fleeing conflict.

An EU official noted on Monday (17 July) that the directive, known as 2001/55, also only applies when "one nationality was seeking asylum in large numbers".

In 2015, Italy had issued similar threats given its broader frustrations with the lack of help from other EU states after large numbers of people arrived at its shores.

Other efforts to grant asylum seekers travel rights are also likely to meet resistance.

EU law bans asylum seekers from being issued residence permits, which would allow them to travel around the passport-free Schengen area. It means they must remain in the country dealing with their asylum process or be returned, if caught.

In practice, such return rules under the so-called Dublin regulation are not being applied correctly, causing frustration among EU states.

Efforts to reform Dublin have instead been met with resistance as governments bicker about the principles of solidarity and responsibility sharing.

Rather, people tend to move and travel to EU states that offer better protection and reception.

These diverging levels of protection and reception have been described by experts as "drivers of onward movement".

Some stuck in Greece, for instance, still manage to travel up through the Western Balkans to reach Germany or Sweden.

Non-asylum seekers

People not seeking asylum, however, fit into a different category.

EU states can issue long-stay visas, residence and travel permits to non-EU citizens. Such rules are not governed by EU law.

Instead, the EU only provides a set of guidelines should there be a sudden large-scale inflow of migrants.

Those guideline stipulate that the EU state "should opt for issuing residence permits or provisional residence permits that are not equivalent to a short-stay visa if the migrants do not meet the conditions for travelling within the Schengen area."

Austria readies for migrant border surge

Foreign ministers in Brussels agreed to toughen up measures against Libyan migrant smugglers amid Austrian claims it is ready to "protect" its borders from any sudden mass migrant movements from Italy.

Italy to impose tough rules on NGOs

Italian authorities will release a code of conduct for NGOs, which prevents them, among other things, from entering Libyan territorial waters. A draft copy of the code says NGOs will be banned from Italian ports on failure to comply.

Opinion

Italy's action against NGOs is wrong

With the code of conduct Italian authorities are trying to impose on NGOs that rescue migrants in the Mediterranean, people would be forced to endure additional days at sea while states tussle over which port to send them too.

Italy seizes NGO boat and starts Libyan mission

Italian authorities impounded a German NGO's rescue boat as a "preventive" measure, and has moved its boats to Libyan waters to help the local coastguard in turning back migrant boats.

Analysis

Election in sight, EU mood music changes on offshoring asylum

Designating a country like Rwanda as 'safe' under EU rules to send an asylum-seeker there requires strict conditions to be met first. But a backdoor clause introduced into EU legislation allows a future commission to strip out those requirements.

Latest News

  1. Borrell: 'Israel provoking famine', urges more aid access
  2. Europol: Israel-Gaza galvanising Jihadist recruitment in Europe
  3. EU to agree Israeli-settler blacklist, Borrell says
  4. EU ministers keen to use Russian profits for Ukraine ammo
  5. Call to change EIB defence spending rules hits scepticism
  6. Potential legal avenues to prosecute Navalny's killers
  7. EU summit, Gaza, Ukraine, reforms in focus this WEEK
  8. The present and future dystopia of political micro-targeting ads

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersJoin the Nordic Food Systems Takeover at COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersHow women and men are affected differently by climate policy
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  5. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  6. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?

Join EUobserver

EU news that matters

Join us