Commissioner criticises Italy for lax refugee processing

(STOCKHOLM) - Italy is falling short in its duty to properly register would-be refugees, many of whom end up using the country as a transit point for other EU states, a European commissioner said Thursday.

"Our impression is that Italy and some other member states don't explain to people clearly enough that if they want to claim asylum they have to leave their fingerprints," the commissioner for home affairs, Cecilia Malmstroem, told Sweden's Dagens Nyheter newspaper.

"The immediate consequence is that a number of them leave the country to pop up in Germany and in Sweden."

While Brussels was not looking at punishing Italy at this stage for failing to record fingerprints of would-be refugees, it was closely examining the issue because of "concerns" expressed by other EU states, said a spokeswoman for Malmstroem, Michele Cercone.

Under a treaty governing refugee requests in the EU, asylum-seekers have to have their applications processed in the first EU country in which they arrive.

But many would-be refugees who arrive in Italy, by boat across the Mediterranean or across land borders, do whatever they can to avoid being fingerprinted and registered there. They prefer to head to other EU countries perceived as giving them better opportunities -- Sweden, Britain and Germany chief among them.

Swedish Immigration Minister Tobias Billstroem told Dagens Nyheter that nine of the EU's 28 countries host 90 percent of the refugees and that "it's clear" that the others must help out.

In Sweden in the first half of this year, he said, 31,900 people have applied for refugee status, more than a third of them Syrians.