Failed Asylum Seekers Use Italy as Back Door to European Union Residency – #MigrantCrisis

Thousands of migrants whose asylum applications were rejected in Northern Europe are returning to Italy because it is ‘easier’ to obtain European Union residency documents, according to claims from regional officials and aid workers.

Authorities in the northern Italian province of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, near the border with Austria and Slovenia, are appealing to the government for support after several thousand rejected asylum seekers have arrived in the region this year, reports the BBC.

The mayors of Gorizia, Trieste, Udine, and Pordenone have written to Italy’s interior minister to express their concern, as they witness the new migrant flow from Northern Europe to Italy – hitherto in the opposite direction – with migrants requesting asylum travelling from Germany, Austria, France, and Belgium.

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