Italy pledges to resume asylum transfers from Switzerland

Italy has promised in writing to resume accepting asylum seekers transferred from Switzerland after blocking recent attempts, SRF reported. The Swiss State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) is preparing new transfers, which could take place in the coming days or weeks.

In August, the SEM said the first flight bookings had been made after years of Italian refusals. But when Switzerland tried to carry out the transfers, Italian authorities rejected them, despite having accepted responsibility for the people involved, SEM communications chief Daniel Bach told SRF.

Italy also intervened with airlines to prevent some transfers, Bach said. The SEM described these as individual cases and did not provide further details. Switzerland then raised the issue with Italy and the European Union, arguing that Italy’s refusal breached the Dublin asylum agreement, which allows Switzerland to return people shown to have travelled to the country via Italy.

At the end of October, Italy’s migration authority told the SEM in writing that it would resume accepting transfers. Bach said Italy had signalled it would consider both whether it was responsible for an asylum seeker and whether it would accept the transfer itself.

The SEM said it would focus on cases in which asylum applications were lodged after the EU’s Asylum and Migration Pact took effect in mid-June. Italy has told other countries it will accept only people who arrived after that date. The European Commission is expected to publish a report on how the pact is being implemented, including whether countries are meeting their obligations.

Italy stopped taking back asylum seekers at the end of 2022. Since then, it would have been required to accept 4,036 people from Switzerland. After a waiting period, Switzerland had to process their asylum applications; nearly half have since received protection in the country. Switzerland could theoretically still transfer 773 people to Italy.