The Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi released a decree on Friday stating that asylum seekers will need to pay $5,259 (€4,938) to avoid being held at a detention center while their applications are reviewed. The decree called this plan a method of providing a financial guarantee to have the right to enter into Italy as an asylum seeker. The decree comes amid an increased tensions between Mediterranean countries and migrants arriving from North Africa.

Under the new decree, individuals seeking asylum in Italy must pay through a bank account or insurance policy, not through third parties. The transaction must also be completed before the deadline and before the border control processes the applicants’ biometric data.

The objectives set out in the decree come amid another large influx of migrants into Italy, mainly from North Africa, which led to the government setting up more detention centers in the main migrant landing areas, such as the island of Lampedusa. Within these detention centers, the government has ordered the “holding time” for the migrants to be detained from three months to 1.5 years.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni stated during a visit to Lampedusa with the President of the European Commission Ursula von Der Leyen that European countries need to work together to stop migrants departing from North Africa and deport those whose asylum applications were declined to “save the future of Europe.” Meloni and von Der Leyen drafted a 10-point plan after seeing the pressure put on migratory routes. The plan aimed to increase border force surveillance, set up returns and deportations, and crack down on smugglers with “unworthy” sea vessels. The latest data shows that 132,867 migrants have reached Italy’s coasts which is over double the amount this time last year.