Asylum applications: the CSM sounds the alarm over workloads

‘Highly uncertain’ – this is the CSM’s assessment of the ability of judicial offices to cope with the new and heavier workloads imposed by the implementation, from mid-June, of the European Pact on migration and asylum. The opinion approved by the plenary session on the decree-law (currently under discussion in the Senate), which sets out the new applicable regulations, therefore expresses concern on this point. The opinion highlights how the European Commission’s decision of 5 August 2024 assigned Italia a mandatory of 16,032 border procedures for the first year (June 2026–June 2027), rising to 24,048 in the following year and 32,064 once fully operational (from June 2028 onwards). This represents 26.7 per cent of all border procedures across the entire European Union.

It is true that the decree provides for the expansion of the Territorial Commissions, providing for the establishment of up to 24 new sections within the Commissions and the recruitment of 240 staff members with the rank of official and 77 staff members with the rank of assistant. However, the CSM warns that this expansion of the administrative apparatus, made necessary by the new powers, is not matched by a corresponding expansion of the specialised sections, which have regained jurisdiction over the matter following the controversial transfer of powers to the Courts of Appeal.

The opinion points out that every border procedure involves forms of restriction on freedom of movement (in the form of authorisation to reside in a specific place, which is effectively equivalent to a residence requirement) or restriction on personal liberty (in the forms detention or detention ordered for the purposes of carrying out investigations), resulting in a proliferation of judicial review proceedings. ‘It is therefore clear,’ the opinion states, ‘that a significant increase in the Administration’s capacity to resolve cases, due to the planned expansion of the territorial commissions, will be followed by an equally significant increase in judicial litigation, the latter of which is certainly set to require a significant, further, commitment from the judicial authorities’.

There are also concerns regarding the ‘case clearance’ unit, which is tasked with clearing a large proportion of the pending immigration cases by the end of 2025. Indeed, the adjustment to the staffing levels of the honorary magistrates, who are responsible for this task, will need to be such as to make the reduction backlog. The figures highlighted by the CSM regarding international protection for the period 2019–2025, whilst the number of cases resolved has remained virtually stable at around 35,000 per year, have instead seen a significant increase in new cases, rising from around 38,000 in 2023 to around 80,000 in 2025.

The knock-on effect is inevitable on the backlog, which has also doubled over the same period (from around 67,000 in 2023 to around 133,000 in 2025). ‘The analysis in question,’ the opinion concludes, ‘shows that, at the rate of around 40,000 cases resolved in 2025, it would take more than three years to clear the entire backlog accumulated as at 31 December 2025.’