Italy's Albania migrant plan hits legal stumbling block
October 19, 2024
Italy's plan to process asylum seekers in Albania was dealt a serious blow on Friday, just days after the first group of migrants were sent to the Balkan country.
A court in Rome ruled that 12 of the 16 migrants taken to Albania on Monday would have to be returned to Italy.
The judges said that the men could not be sent back to their home countries — Egypt and Bangladesh — because the countries were not deemed safe for people to return.
What did Meloni say about the court ruling?
The plan to send migrants to detention centers in Albania has been a flagship policy of the far-right government under Prime Minister Georgia Meloni. Her party, the Brothers of Italy (FdI), said it would appeal the ruling.
Speaking to reporters during a trip to Lebanon, Meloni called the decision "prejudiced" and said it was up to her government to determine countries that were safe and those that weren't.
"Perhaps the government needs to clarify better what is meant by safe country," she said.
Meloni has called a cabinet meeting for Monday to decide on the government's response to the legal ruling.
The four other migrants have already been sent back to Italy after staff at the detention center in Albania found that they were too vulnerable for off-shore processing.
What is Italy's Albania migrant plan?
Rome has set up two detention centers in Albania that can hold up to 3,000 people per month.
They will be run by Italian staff and security, with Italian judges hearing cases over video.
The plan is set to cost €160 million ($175 million) per year and is under agreement so far to run for five years.
Italy said that those who granted asylum will be welcomed back to Italy, but those who are not, will be deported directly from Albania.
While it has been slammed by human rights organizations such as Amnesty International, which called it a "cruel experiment [that] is a stain on the Italian government," the plan has received praise from some parts of the EU.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen endorsed the project as "out-of-box" thinking to deal with the number of migrants seeking refuge in the EU.
Why did the court order the return of migrants to Italy?
The legal obstacle facing Italy's coalition government, which is made up of far-right and anti-migrant parties, is that the list of countries it deems safe includes countries with regions that are not considered safe.
The court on Friday said its ruling was in line with a recent decision from the European Court of Justice that EU member states may only deem a country safe if the whole country is safe, which is to say there is no persecution, torture or threat of indiscriminate violence.
Opposition says Meloni's migrant plan 'violates the law'
Opposition leader Elly Schlein, head of the center-left Democratic Party said that the court's ruling was easily foreseeable, saying it was not legal.
"Dismantle everything and apologize to the Italians," she told Meloni, adding that "far from being a model, the agreement you made with Albania... violates international, European and national law."
Meloni responded to the ruling on X, saying "Italians have asked me to stop illegal immigration, and I will do everything possible to keep my word."
The plan, and its legal problems, shares similarities with a plan by the former UK Conservative government to send migrants to Rwanda. That plan was also foiled by the courts and eventually overturned by the Labour government.
Several European countries, including Germany, are nevertheless still looking into the possibility of launching similar off-shore migrant detention centers.
ab/rm (AFP, AP)