Italian judges refused, on Friday, January 31, to approve the detention of a group of migrants in centers managed by Italy in Albania, said a government source, bearing a new blow to the project to relocate the far -right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
The Rome Court of Appeal referred the case to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) which already examines legal issues raised by the Italian courts during previous attempts to send migrants to Albania, said This same source at the France-Presse agency.
This decision constitutes a political puzzle for mme Meloni, whose flagship project outsource the processing of asylum requests to a third country and to accelerate the repatriations of dismissed asylum seekers is closely followed by the European Union (EU).
The plan, strongly criticized by the rights defending groups and the opposition parties in Italy, has encountered repeated obstacles and the CJEU examines legal issues raised by several Italian courts.
A first transfer already blocked
Migrants were part of a group of 49 people intercepted by the Italian authorities while they were trying to cross the Mediterranean, before being conducted in Albania where they arrived on Tuesday. Most are from Bangladesh, but the group also has six Egyptians, an Ivorian and a Gambian, according to human rights associations following the case.
In November 2023, Mme Meloni signed an agreement with his Albanian counterpart, Edi Rama, in order to open two centers managed by Italy in Albania, on the other side of the Adriatic.
The centers became operational in October, but the judges rejected the detention of the first two groups of men who had been transferred there and who were therefore sent back to the peninsula.
Italy has established a list of so -called countries “Sure” And the asylum requests of people from these countries are treated in an accelerated manner, only men from these countries that can be taken to Albanian centers.
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But the judges who blocked the first transfer of migrants invoked a CJEU stop stipulating that EU states can only designate as safe countries, and not only regions.
A CJEU audience is scheduled in February, according to Italian media.
Source: Lemonde