ROME- Italy’s centre right government is sending back to Slovenia hundreds of asylum seekers and migrants trying to enter the country in freezing temperatures along the so-called Balkan land route from the Middle East and Africa, il Fatto Quotidiano newspaper reported Tuesday. The policy change represents a harsh approach in keeping with the Government's anti-migrant stance that a Rome court has deemed illegal as contravening EU law.     

 The policy change was signed formally a week ago by Maria Teresa Sempreviva, chief of staff of Italian interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi, in the form of a directive to allow “informal readmissions” of the migrants, official sources said.

 The measure first was introduced by Piantedosi, under Conte’s first government (2018-2019), when he was interior minister secretary general, following the example of a bilateral treaty of 1996 between Austria and Slovenia. The measure subsequently became a dead letter as it was never ratified by Italy’s parliament and last year the Rome Tribunal court ruled that “informal readmissions” of asylum seekers were illegitimate.

 “The Italian State should not have carried out informal readmissions in the absence of guarantees on the effective treatment that foreigners would have received in other countries,” the Tribunal judge ruled in 2021 following an appeal by a Pakistani citizen.

 Greece, Malta, and Cyprus also have been carrying out similar measures to send back migrants and asylum seekers and in a joint statement Monday said they “assume a strong and common position to ask measures (from the EU) which will allow to better control the migratory flows and to detect initiatives to reduce the pressure on maritime borders.”

 A statement by the CGIL trade union and the Magistratura Democratica association of left-wing magistrates demanded that the Italian government “end these illegitimate practices and respect Italian legislation and international conventions on the right to asylum.”

  Once Italy sends back migrants they can expect to be returned by Slovenia to Serbia and or Bosnia.

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