Italy Blocks Germany’s First Illegal Immigrant Returns Under New EU Asylum Rules

Italy Blocks Germany’s First Illegal Immigrant Returns Under New EU Asylum Rules

Germany’s first bid in nearly four years to return illegal migrants to Italy collapsed this week after Rome formally refused to take them back, opening a dispute between two of the European Union’s biggest countries two months after its new asylum rules took effect. The first transfer, of a 22-year-old Somali woman due to be flown back on Aug. 19, did not go ahead. The woman, who illegally entered Italy’s Lampedusa island in March before crossin…