ROME: Italian judges ruled on Friday against the detention of the first migrants sent for processing in Albania, dealing a major blow to a flagship policy of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s hard-right government.

But the Italian government vowed to push ahead with its contested plan to divert asylum-seekers abroad, saying it would appeal against the court’s ruling.

Rome has repeatedly boasted that multiple EU countries are interested in the scheme as a way of processing asylum requests in countries outside the bloc, and Brussels has been watching closely.

But just days after the plan went live on Monday, the first group of migrants sent to non-EU Albania will have to leave again.

The judges had ruled on the detention of 12 men from Bangladesh and Egypt picked up in the Mediterranean and transferred by an Italian naval vessel on Monday.

They had arrived at one of two Italian-run migrant centres in Albania on Wednesday.

The court said a recent ruling by the European Court of Justice meant the men do not meet the criteria for detention in Albania, and will instead have to be brought to Italy.

They will leave for Italy on Saturday, according to Italian news agency Ansa.

Prime Minister Meloni’s post-fascist Brothers of Italy party slammed the “politicised judges”, saying on X that the ruling made it “impossible” to send back irregular migrants.

Interior Minister Matteo Piante­d­osi said Rome would appeal the cou­rt’s decision, while Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said it was not up to judges to “change laws or stop the government from doing its job”.

Opposition seeks apology

Opposition leader Elly Schlein, head of the centre-left Democratic Party, said they had known the jud­ges would rule against the detentions “not because we are clairvoyants, but because we read the laws”.

“Dismantle everything and apologise to Italians,” she told Meloni, adding that “far from being a model, the agreement you made with Albania violates international, European and national law”.

Under the November 2023 deal, migrants intercepted by Italian vessels at sea within Italy’s search and rescue area are to be taken to Albania for processing, apart from those considered vulnerable by law.

Meloni, elected in 2022 on a vow to reduce migrant boat crossings from North Africa, presented the scheme to around 10 other EU countries in Brussels on Thursday.

Her government hopes what she has called a “new, courageous, unprecedented path” will allow the majority of migrants to be rapidly repatriated.

To that end, Rome recently expanded to 22 countries its list of “safe” countries of origin _ defined as states where it deems there is no persecution, torture or threat of indiscriminate violence.

Published in Dawn, October 19th, 2024