A court in Italy on Friday ruled against the government’s move to detain 12 migrants at newly opened centres in Albania, highlighting a key hurdle in the administration’s plan to outsource some of its migrant processing to the Balkan country.
The 12 migrants were part of the first batch of 16 migrants to be sent to the two centres that opened last week under a five-year deal to host 3,000 migrants per month picked up by the Italian coastguard, to vet them for possible asylum in Italy or to send them back to their countries.
However, each migrant’s detention must be reviewed by special migration courts in Italy under Italian law, and on Friday a court in Rome rejected the detention of 12 of the migrants.
The court said they cannot be sent back to their countries of origin, Bangladesh and Egypt, because the court did not deem the countries to be safe enough.
The four other migrants had already been rejected by centre staff as vulnerable, after undergoing health and other screenings.
The verdict represents an early stumbling block in the arrangement between Italy and Albania that the government of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has hailed as a new “model” to handle illegal migration.
The anti-migration League party, part of Ms Meloni’s coalition government, immediately criticised the judges’ decision, accusing them of being left-wing activists issuing politically motivated decisions.
The Italian centre-left opposition said the current scheme is expensive, complicated and damaging to migrants’ rights.
The 16 migrants, 10 Bangladeshis and six Egyptians, were transferred on government orders to Albania by an Italian navy vessel on Wednesday to undergo what is referred to as accelerated border procedures under the Italy-Albania deal.
However, all of them must now be transferred to Italy.
Ms Meloni criticised the judges and said that deeming countries such as Bangladesh and Egypt unsafe means that virtually all migrants would be barred from the Albania programme, making it unworkable.
Her interior minister, Matteo Piantedosi, said the government would appeal against the ruling.
The centres will cost Italy 670 million euros (£560 million) over five years. The facilities are run by Italy and are under Italian jurisdiction, while Albanian guards provide external security.
Italy has agreed to welcome those migrants who are granted asylum, while those whose applications are rejected face deportation directly from Albania.
The controversial agreement to outsource the housing of asylum-seekers to a non-EU member country has been hailed by some countries that, like Italy, are experiencing a high level of migrant arrivals.
The agreement was endorsed by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as an example of “out-of-box thinking” in tackling the issue of migration into the European Union.
