As Rome prepares to deport migrants to Albanian detention centers, the European Union’s top court has given its support to Italian judges who questioned a list of “safe countries” created by Rome.
The ruling by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) was condemned by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s hard-right government, which said it “weakens policies to combat mass illegal immigration.”
Others in the bloc have closely followed Meloni’s plan to outsource migrant processing to a non-EU nation and expedite the repatriation of asylum seekers.
The expensive scheme has been hampered by legal challenges for months.
Italian magistrates cited the European Court’s ruling that states of the EU cannot designate specific regions as “safe” when others are not.
The Luxembourg-based ECJ ruled on Friday in a long-awaited decision, saying that Italy is free to choose which nations are “safe.” However, it should adhere to stringent legal requirements and permit applicants and courts to access and challenge the supporting evidence.
A Rome court turned to EU judges, according to the ECJ’s statement, citing the impossibility of accessing such information and preventing it from “challenging and reviewing the legitimacy of such a presumption of safety” in its statement.
The ECJ concurred with Italian judges who raised this issue last year by saying that a nation might not be considered “safe” if it does not provide adequate protection to its entire population.
In November 2023, Meloni and her Albanian counterpart, Edi Rama, signed a migration agreement, and Rome opened two centers in Albania last year, with the intention of processing up to 36, 000 asylum seekers annually.
Due to legal challenges, the detention facilities have been deserted for months. A report last week discovered that their construction cost seven times more than an Italian equivalent center.
Government’s strategy “dismantled”
The European court rendered its decision in the case of two Bangladeshi nationals who were taken to Albania by Italian authorities after being rescued at sea and denied asylum because of Italy’s definition of Bangladesh as a “safe” nation.
The Albanian migrant camps scheme, according to Dario Belluccio, a lawyer who represented one of the Bangladeshi asylum seekers at the ECJ on Friday, has been put to death.
According to him, “It will not be possible to continue with the Italian government’s decision that was made prior to this decision.” “Technically speaking, it seems to me that the government’s approach has been completely destroyed,” he told the Reuters news agency.
The EU judgment, according to Meloni’s office, “further restricts the already limited” capacity of parliament and government to make decisions on the matter.”
It stated that “this development should concern everyone.”
Italy’s overall strategy to stop illegal immigration by sea has been successful, even though the Albanian scheme is still in legal limbo.
Source: Aljazeera
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