Be careful what you wish for — Meloni’s migration boomerang comes back to Italy

“Be careful what you wish for. In the wake of the Ceuta crisis, Giorgia Meloni was the first to break with European solidarity and choose confrontation with Spain by suspending Schengen — only to turn back just 21 people.
Now the boomerang is coming back on a completely different scale. Germany has reopened transfers to Italy, while Switzerland, Austria and Finland are moving in the same direction. And perhaps Mette Frederiksen’s Denmark will soon start sending them back to Italy too?Under European rules, more than 10,000 asylum seekers could ultimately be transferred back to Italy.
The irony? Two major countries have so far not decided to send asylum seekers back to Italy: France and Spain. It seems Meloni chose the wrong allies — and picked the wrong enemies.
This is precisely why migration policy cannot be built on nationalist propaganda and the illusion that every country can simply push people across the next border. Meloni wanted stricter rules and fewer secondary movements. She can hardly complain when other European governments demand that those same rules now be applied to Italy.
Ceuta was not just Spain’s problem, just as Lampedusa was not just Italy’s. Europe has one common external border. Protecting it must be a shared European responsibility.
We need stronger European control of our external border, common asylum and return policies, and genuine solidarity among Member States — not governments weaponising Schengen whenever it suits their domestic politics and undermining the very solidarity they later expect from others.

Meloni wanted stricter rules, fewer secondary movements and more returns. Europe is now taking her at her word. Be careful what you wish for — especially when the rules you demand for others come back to your own doorstep.”

— Sandro Gozi