ROME: A key policy of the hard-right government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was severely undermined on Friday when Italian judges ruled against detaining the first migrants sent to Albania for processing.
However, the Italian government promised to push ahead with its challenged plan to redirect shelter searchers abroad, saying it would bid against the court’s decision.
Brussels has been closely following Rome’s boasts that a number of EU nations are interested in the plan as a means of processing asylum requests from outside the bloc.
Be that as it may, only days after the arrangement went live on Monday, the principal gathering of travelers shipped off non-EU Albania should leave once more.
On Monday, the judges made a decision regarding the detention of 12 men from Egypt and Bangladesh who were picked up in the Mediterranean and transferred by an Italian naval ship.
On Wednesday, they had arrived at one of Albania’s two migrant centers run by Italians.
The court said that a recent decision by the European Court of Justice means that the men can’t be held in Albania and will have to go to Italy instead.
The Italian news agency Ansa reports that they will travel to Italy on Saturday.
On X, the post-fascist Brothers of Italy party of Prime Minister Meloni criticized the “politicized judges” and stated that the ruling made it “impossible” to return irregular migrants.
While Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani stated that it was not the responsibility of judges to “change laws or stop the government from doing its job,” Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi stated that Rome would appeal the council’s decision.
Opposition demands an apology Elly Schlein, leader of the center-left Democratic Party in the opposition, claimed that the judges would reject the detentions “not because we are clairvoyants, but because we read the laws” and that they were aware of this.
She advised Meloni, “Dismantle everything and apologise to Italians,” adding that “far from being a model, the agreement you made with Albania violates international, European, and national law.” Meloni was in response to her remarks.
Except for those who are legally deemed vulnerable, migrants who are intercepted at sea by Italian vessels within Italy’s search and rescue area in November 2023 will be transported to Albania for processing.
On Thursday, Meloni, who was elected in 2022 on a promise to cut down on migrant boat crossings from North Africa, presented the plan to approximately ten other EU nations in Brussels.
Her government hopes that the majority of migrants will be quickly repatriated thanks to what she has described as a “new, courageous, unprecedented path.”
To that end, Rome recently added 22 new countries to its list of “safe” countries of origin, which it defines as states where it believes there are no threats of indiscriminate violence, torture, or persecution.
