The Roman Court of Appeal decided to assign the case to the Court of Justice of the European Union.
On Friday, the Italian court refused to approve the accelerated expulsion of 43 asylum seekers detained in the centers in Albania based on the controversial plan of Prime Minister Giorgie Meloni, whose aim is to reduce the inflow of illegal migrants into the country. TASR refers to AP and AFP agencies.
The Roman Court of Appeal decided to assign the case to the Court of Justice of the European Union. According to an anonymous source from the government environment, 43 captured migrants must be transferred back to Italy.
These refugees belonged to a group of 49 people, whose Italian authorities detained in an attempt to cross the Mediterranean Sea and transported them to Albania, where they arrived on Tuesday. Most of them come from Bangladesh, including six Egyptians, one man from ivory coast and one of Gambie, reporting human rights protection organizations that follow the case.
The controversial agreement between Rome and Tirana was to relocate the processing of applications of migrants detained by the Italian Coast Guard in the central part of the Mediterranean to the country outside the EU and accelerate the repatriation of unsuccessful asylum seekers. However, it has repeatedly encountered obstacles and the EU Court of Justice is currently investigating legal issues that have been raised by several Italian courts.
Agreement with Albania
Meloni signed an agreement with Albanian Prime Minister Edi Ram in November 2023 on the opening of two seizure centers in Albania, operated by Italy.
The first two attempts to place refugees in October and November failed at the level of Italian courts. In both cases, they decided that groups of men do not come from safe countries. The authorities finally returned them to Italy.
The courts appealed to the recent verdict of the Court of Justice of the EU that the Member States of the Union can only be described as safe whole countries, not just parts of them. The list of Italy also included countries with risk zones.
Prime Minister Meloni’s government, in response to the first unsuccessful attempt, enforced a law that limits the list of safe countries of origin from 22 to 19, and insisted that all of their parts were safe. Nevertheless, the judges decided against and asked the Court of Justice of the EU to explain. The hearing in this matter was preliminary for 25 February.
