Italy court again blocks migrant detentions in Albania, in blow to Meloni

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By Angelo Amante and Paolo Chiriatti

ROME (Reuters) – A Rome court on Friday ordered a group of migrants detained in camps built in Albania to be transferred to Italy, sources said, dealing a fresh blow to a plan by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to curb irregular sea arrivals.

The decision involved 43 migrants from Egypt and Bangladesh who had been brought to Albania this week after being picked up in the Mediterranean, in the latest attempt to enforce a policy whose validity had already been questioned by the judiciary.

Italy’s right-wing government built the two facilities in the Balkan country aiming to hold migrants there while processing their asylum requests.

The latest ruling marks the third time judges have ordered that migrants be transferred to Italy since a first group was taken to Albania in October last year.

Italy’s opposition parties welcomed the setback for Meloni.

“As any person with common sense would have imagined, yet another deportation of migrants to Albania has come to nothing,” said Nicola Fratoianni, a lawmaker from the Green-Left Alliance party.

The Italian interior ministry declined to comment.

Two sources close to the matter told Reuters the judges had decided to refer the matter to the European Court of Justice (ECJ). In the meantime the migrants will be moved to Italy, with the transfer probably taking place on Saturday, one of the sources said.

The Albanian facilities had remained empty since November, when judges last ordered those detained there to be transferred to Italy, citing doubts over the scheme’s compliance with a recent ECJ ruling.

That ruling, which was not specifically related to Italy, said with regard to migrants that no nation of origin could be considered safe if even just a part of its territory was deemed dangerous.

Italian judges said the ruling threw into question the government’s plan to take to Albania migrants from a list of “safe” countries, in the hope of swiftly repatriating them when their asylum requests were, in all likelihood, rejected.

The issue has sparked a row between Meloni’s coalition and the judiciary, with senior figures in the government accusing the courts of trying to undermine the plan for political reasons.

The ECJ is set to review Italy’s scheme in the next few weeks to clarify whether it is in compliance with EU law.

(writing by Angelo Amante, editing by Gavin Jones)