An Italian court this Friday annulled the 18th arrest of first asylum seekers transferred to Albania in an agreement with the far-right government of Giorgia Meloniwhose party described the decision as “absurd”.
The Italian Prime Minister reacted immediately and promised to “overcome this obstacle”.
The court invoked a ruling from the Court of Justice of the European Union that mentions countries of origin considered “safe” by host countries, and concluded that migrants from Bangladesh and Egypt do not meet the prison requirements set out in the agreement between Italy and Albania. and should be returned.
The government of Meloni, leader of the Fratelli d’Italia (FDI) party, signed an agreement in 2023 with Albania, which is not part of the European Union, to create two reception centers so that migrants rescued in the Mediterranean can request asylum.
Meloni and his right-wing and far-right allies presented this agreement as a model for Europe. The Italian leader detailed its contents on Thursday in Brussels during an informal meeting with countries such as Hungary, the Netherlands, Austria and Greece, in the presence of the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
The decision, taken by the judges of the migration affairs section of the Rome Court, therefore constitutes a serious setback for the Italian Executive, which has made the fight against irregular migration one of its main priorities.
The prime minister’s party protested against the court decision, which it described as “absurd”.
“Some politicized magistrates have decided that there are no safe countries of origin: it is impossible to repatriate those who enter illegally, it is prohibited to repatriate illegal immigrants. They would like to abolish Italy’s borders, we will not allow that”, indicated the FDI in the X.
Dismantle the centers
The five-year agreement, with an estimated cost to Italy 160 million euros (around 981 million reais), applies to adult men intercepted by the Italian Navy or Coast Guard in their rescue area in international waters.
The procedure includes several steps. Identification is carried out first on a military ship, then migrants are transferred to a center in northern Albania, located in the port of Shengjin, for further identification, and finally to another Albanian center, a former military base in Gjader.
The first 16 migrants arrived in Albania on Wednesday, but four of them were immediately returned to Italy, two because they were minors and two because they needed medical care.
The court decision provoked reactions and the NGO Sea-Watch Italia stated on the social network X that “the media spectacle organized by the Meloni government clashes with national and international law”.
