The odyssey of asylum seekers and the collapse of EU regulations

Less than 24 hours after they stepped onto a pier in a port in southern Italy, 60 survivors of a dangerous boat journey from Libya were issued expulsion orders.
Some came from Bangladesh, others from Syria and Egypt. They had been at sea for 10 hours on two dangerously overcrowded boats, carrying a total of 258 people, when they were picked up by a rescue ship operated by the humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders 50 kilometers off the coast of Libya on October 6.
Once on dry land in Salerno, south of Naples, they were taken to a migrant processing center and asked to sign documents. They are now gathered outside the train station, tired and confused, according to the Associated Press.
“Did you know what you were signing?” – asked a volunteer from the Catholic charity Caritas. “No, no,” they replied in unison.
“Has anyone asked you if you want to apply for international protection?” – asked the volunteer. Again they replied, “No.”
LACK OF INFORMATION
The situation is typical of newly arrived migrants and asylum seekers on European shores. Many of them, poorly advised by relatives and friends, misled by insufficient official information or poor translation services, make hasty and often irreversible decisions. They may find themselves in legal limbo for years, cut off from any government assistance.
According to the International Organization for Migration, more than 236,000 people have crossed the borders of the European Union illegally this year, an increase of 60% compared to the same period last year. The vast majority arrived in Italy by boat.
Despite decades of efforts to reform it, the European asylum system remains disorderly and ineffective. Across the continent, attitudes towards migrants and refugees are hardening, amid a difficult balance between border protection and respect for human rights.
“He did not apply for asylum,” officials wrote in Italian, English and Arabic on Mohammed’s crumpled expulsion card. The 23-year-old Syrian, who asked not to be identified, held a newspaper as he sat on a bench in a volunteer-run shelter in Salerno, his eyes red from lack of sleep.
NORTHERN EUROPE AS THE LAST DESTINATION People arriving from Syria are almost always granted asylum, but Mohammed chose not to apply for asylum.
Italy doesn’t want him; I don’t want to be in Italy. He has siblings in Germany, so he plans to go there.
“I want to stay in Germany,” Mohammed said. “If I were to apply for asylum in Italy, they would send me back here if I got caught in Germany.”
Italian authorities gave the rescue ship, which had permission, to dock in Salerno, three days’ sail from the open waters of the Mediterranean. Italy has failed to stop rescue ships from picking up migrants, but is forcing them to use fuel and spend days sailing to reach distant ports.
Among those who disembarked in Salerno on October 9 were migrants from Syria, Egypt, Bangladesh, South Sudan, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire. They were taken to a processing center where they were photographed and fingerprinted.
LACK OF INTERPRETERS AT BORDER CONTROL
As the Associated Press confirmed in official documents and in interviews with local authorities, neither Bengali nor Arabic translators were present during questioning by border officials.
Migrants often lack information about their rights, partly due to the lack of interpreters during the identification process. According to a study by the International Rescue Committee, a non-governmental organization, only 17% of migrants arriving in Italy receive adequate information about their rights.
When they heard that the newly arrived migrants were to be expelled, lawyers and volunteers working for Caritas rushed to the Salerno train station in the early morning hours to provide food, water and basic legal advice.
“We informed them of their right to appeal against the expulsion order,” explained Antonio Bonifacio, one of the Caritas volunteers, “but only the Bangladeshi migrants and some Egyptians appealed to our lawyers, while all the Syrians left by train as soon as possible , to try to reach destinations in Northern Europe because they were afraid of being tracked and stranded in Italy.”
Among the Syrians planning to head north was a 33-year-old woman from Damascus. It was her third attempt to reach Europe by sea after her brother, a student opposed to President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, died in prison.
The AP had no way to verify her account, which included a second attempt to refloat a wooden boat with about 350 passengers that began sinking shortly after leaving Tobruk in northeastern Libya.
She said she swam to the beach. After a brief moment of safety, “I was held in a Libyan detention center for a week without access to a shower, and my clothes were soaked in salt and vomit,” she said.
“Now I just want to contact my brother in Germany.”
FAILURE OF THE EUROPEAN ASYLUM AND MIGRATION SYSTEM
Under European rules known as the Dublin Regulation, migrants should apply for asylum in the first EU member state they enter. If they go to another EU country and are picked up by the authorities, they must be returned to the country of arrival or the country of first registration.
This places a huge burden on the countries where most people have arrived by sea, such as Greece, Italy, Malta and Spain.
However, in December 2022, Italy unilaterally suspended transfers of migrants and asylum seekers back to its territory. This means that if Muhammad goes to Germany and is caught, he cannot be sent back to Italy. Instead, he would have to submit a new asylum application in Germany.
TIGHTENED MEASURES BY THE ITALIAN GOVERNMENT
Prime Minister Georgia Meloni, Italy’s first far-right leader since World War II, admitted that migration was the biggest challenge of her first year in power. In April, her government adopted a new, accelerated migration procedure that is expected to resolve most cases within 28 days.
Asylum seekers are held in detention centers until their case is heard. Those who fail to apply or whose visa application is rejected in the first stage are issued with an expulsion order and seven days to leave the country. The backlog of asylum applications currently stands at 82,000.
Theoretically, anyone found on Italian soil after the expiry of the order could face up to 18 months in a migrant detention center before being expelled. In practice, detention centers are overcrowded and Italy does not have repatriation agreements with many of the migrants’ home countries, leaving those expelled in a loop of lack of documentation and repeated detention.
Migrant detention centers are overcrowded
Gabindo, a 35-year-old Bangladeshi, was in the same boat as Mohammed. This is the second time Italian authorities have caught him without a visa. The front page of the deportation order read: “Repatriation detention centers are overcrowded.”
Gabindo, who asked that his full name not be published for fear of further deterioration of his legal status in Italy, was allowed to be released. The system apparently relied on his goodwill for self-repatriation.
Italy’s new fast-track process raises concerns that asylum seekers are being selected based on their nationality, according to a list of countries that Italian authorities consider safe, such as Morocco, Ivory Coast and Nigeria, whose citizens are on average familiar with their asylum applications were denied.
CONCERNS ABOUT FAST ASYLUM PROCEDURE
While the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR agreed in a recent statement that “stronger and faster border procedures” are needed, it also stressed that people should be able to report individual situations of insecurity despite their country of origin.
Maurizio Veglio, a lawyer at the Association for Legal Studies on Immigration, called the new accelerated procedures “an attack on the right to receive asylum.” He stated that “reducing the judging time will certainly affect the quality of the show.”
TESTIMONIES OF ASYLUM SEEKERS
Despite discouraging messages from the Italian government, some migrants decide to stay. Alei Wuch Alei, a 21-year-old from South Sudan, spent five years on the road after leaving his home province of Warrap. He arrived in Salerno on an MSF lifeboat and applied for asylum.
“I crossed the desert from Sudan to Libya and tried to cross the sea three times,” he said. “I once spent three days adrift and was beaten several times in a Libyan detention center. Now I dream of continuing my studies and becoming a doctor.”
Outsourcing will remain a key pillar of EU migration policy, and the bloc will build partnerships with countries in Africa and the Middle East to help stop people leaving. Countries deemed safe that do not take back their citizens may find it more difficult to obtain European visas.
Albania recently agreed to provide temporary shelter to thousands of migrants while Italy considers their asylum applications in Italy – up to 36,000 a year. The agreement raised some concerns from UNHCR regarding human rights guarantees and refugee protection standards.
But despite all the chaos and confusion, there is a happy ending for some people reaching Europe. Also on the MSF rescue ship was Jahdh al-Ali, a 58-year-old Syrian refugee from Daraa. She applied for asylum in Italy, but her preferred destination was France.
“I would like to go and live with my daughter,” al-Ali said in Salerno. “He lives in France: he has a child there and I wish I could stay there next to my daughter and do something for the French.”
When the AP caught up with her again a few weeks later, she was with her daughter, whom she reunited after years apart.