The last 12 asylum seekers detained at a new Italian immigration center in Albania must be transferred to Italy, a court ruled in a blow to a controversial deal between the far-right government in Rome and Tirana aimed at curbing the influx of migrants. .
The decision casts further doubt on the viability and legitimacy of the EU plans. A tough new approach to migration was discussed on Thursday to explore ways to establish migrant processing and detention centers outside the bloc.
A ruling by Italian judges on Friday means the new government facility in Rome has been left largely unoccupied after four of the first group of 16 asylum seekers arrived at the processing centre. On Thursday they were immediately sent back to Italy.
Brothers Italy Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's party angrily condemned the decision on social media, blaming “politicized magistrates” who wanted to “abolish Italy's borders.” “We won't allow it.”
The Minister of the Interior, Matteo Piantedosi, stated: “We will appeal to the Court of Cassation. We will continue what Italy is achieving in Albania, beyond which it will become European law.
The 16, who the Italian government says should eventually be returned to their “safe” home countries of Egypt and Bangladesh, arrived in the Albanian port of Shenzhen from the Italian island of Lampedusa on Wednesday aboard a military ship.
Under the agreement, signed by far-right Prime Minister Meloni and his Albanian counterpart Edi Rama, men detained in international waters crossing from Africa to Europe will be held at the center while their applications are processed.
The program, which can process 3,000 men a month, excludes women, children and vulnerable people from being taken to Italy. Of the first four returned to Italy, two were minors and two were considered vulnerable.
The remaining 12 were considered by judges in Rome to be at risk of violence if extradited to their home countries, upholding the ruling of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) on October 4.
Only immigrants from the Italian list of 22 countries classified as “safe” can be sent to Albania. Egypt and Bangladesh were among them, but the ECJ ruled that a country outside the bloc could not be declared safe until all its territory was deemed safe.
Judge Luciana Sangiovanni said: “In Albania the detention of persons in structures equivalent to the Italian border or transit zones is rejected… due to the fact that the places of origin of the detained persons cannot be recognized as 'countries'. safe'”.
Italy's opposition parties and national newspapers said the effort, which would have cost around €1bn (£830m) over five years, had already failed, with the government spending €250,000 to transport 16 people. to Albania on a military ship.
The Europe Party demanded Piandosi's resignation, saying that the Democratic Party project had failed and that Meloni should apologize.
An NGO network representing 160 organizations that support undocumented immigrants called the agreement between Italy and Albania “an inhumane, absurd and costly system that violates international human rights obligations.”
Michele LeVoy of the Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants, or PICUM, said the network was “dismayed” by the growing support among EU member states and the European Commission for migrant centers abroad.
“In addition to being a logistical and financial failure, it is a brutal system that violates international and EU law and risks abusing people without clear options for justice and reparation,” LeVoy said in a statement.
After newsletter promotion
At a summit in Brussels on Thursday, EU leaders discussed the creation of “return centres” (processing and detention centres) in countries outside the bloc and Commission President Ursula van der Leyen said the Conversations would continue about how they could work.
The summit's final report reflected the group's tough new mindset on migration, calling for “strong action at all levels to facilitate, increase and accelerate returns from the EU using all relevant EU policies, tools and instruments.” “.
Activists and researchers have repeatedly questioned whether maritime centers or “migrant hotspots” can be considered humane, effective – or even legal under international law – compared to a well-funded, EU-based asylum system.
Apart from Albania's agreement with Italy and a smaller agreement between Denmark and Kosovo, it is not at all clear which non-EU countries would be willing to host such centres. Some diplomats suspect that, for this reason alone, the idea may fail.
After the summit, Meloni said, “Many countries are considering the Albanian model,” and many far-right leaders praised what Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof described as “a different mentality in Europe.”
However, others were cautious and questioned the cost, complexity and effectiveness of an offshore model.
Irregular immigration to the EU has fallen since the 2015 migrant crisis and is down more than 40% this year compared to 2023, but the coalition's tough approach reflects a series of electoral victories by anti-immigration far-right parties.
