The relocation of asylum seekers from
countries of first arrival to third countries under a European
solidarity mechanism is secondary to the real issue of
preventing people from arriving in the first place, Premier
Giorgia Meloni said on Wednesday.
"The question of relocations is secondary, very few people have
been relocated in recent months, it is a Linus blanket," Meloni
said in a recorded interview for the nightly current affairs
programme Five Minutes on Rai1.
"The question is not how we offload the problem, it is to stop
arrivals to Italy," she added, referring to the decision by
Germany to suspend relocation procedures for asylum seekers
arriving in Italy under a 2022 European solidarity mechanism
until Rome agrees to resume taking back asylum seekers who
arrived in Italy and then moved on to Germany under the rules
governing asylum in Europe.
"I still don't see concrete solutions," said Meloni.
Dublin requires asylum applications to be processed in the
country of first entry, putting national asylum systems in
countries such as Italy, Greece and Spain which bear the brunt
of sea arrivals under huge strain.
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