Editor’s note (October 2026): This article was originally published in February 2020 and describes Italy’s asylum policies in 2018–2019 under then–Interior Minister Matteo Salvini. The 500,000-deportation target it reports was never implemented, and EU asylum rules have since changed — the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum entered into application in June 2026 (European Commission, home-affairs.ec.europa.eu).
Italy’s 2018–2019 Plan to Deport 500,000 Asylum Seekers (Historical)
Italy was a popular country among migrants who wanted to apply for asylum in Europe. But in 2018–2019 it was becoming one of the toughest places for asylum seekers in Europe, because Italy’s then right-wing government, under Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, was introducing very strict policies against asylum seekers. The Italian government of the time had set an aim to send 500,000 asylum seekers back to their home countries — a target that was never implemented. Think tanks said at the time that due to this plan nearly 670,000 asylum seekers would lose their legal status in the country and might become irregular — overstay, in other words.
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Because of the anti-asylum policies proposed by Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, 24,800 asylum cases were rejected in just the last four months — a record number at the time, and 25 percent higher than the previous four months.
Data revealed by the Institute for International Political Studies showed that more than 7,000 asylum seekers had been refused “Humanitarian Protection” since October 2018. Only 150 cases were approved in January 2019 — a very low rate compared with January 2018. This was because of Matteo Salvini’s Security Decree, which suspended the cases of asylum seekers who were in Italy with a status based on “Socially Dangerous”. Furthermore, it removed the right of failed asylum seekers already living in Italy to remain there even when they could not return to their home countries due to risk to their lives.
Analysts warned at the time that this anti-asylum policy would increase the number of immigrants with no legal status in the country. On the other hand, the number of arriving migrants had already decreased by up to 80% compared with the past. According to International Organization of Migration, 23,126 people arrived in Italy in 2018 which is very low with a comparison to 118,914 arrived in 2017.
At the time, the Italian government was taking approximately 19 months to respond to an individual asylum case. As data released at the time showed, the majority of cases rejected in those months belonged to asylum seekers who had reached Italy in 2017.
Italy had announced a plan to send 500,000 asylum seekers back to their home countries, but it was reportedly sending back only about 50 per month. Analysts said at the time it would take a century to send all of them back at that pace. However, critics argued that this approach would strip asylum seekers of their legal status, creating problems for both immigrants and the Italian government.