Meloni plan fails Albania sends migrants back to Italy

The men's asylum applications were actually supposed to be processed in the south-eastern European country. An Italian court thwarted the plan.

DPA

19.10.2024, 19:42

19.10.2024, 19:43

dpa

Following a court ruling, the first twelve migrants from a newly opened asylum center in Albania were returned to Italy on Saturday. The men arrived in the afternoon on an Italian navy ship in the port city of Bari in Apulia. They were accommodated in the local reception center for asylum seekers. Of the original 16 migrants who were brought to Albania from Italy for their asylum applications, four had already been rejected by the center there before - two because of their health tests and two others because they are minors.

As part of a five-year agreement signed by the two countries in November, up to 3,000 migrants intercepted by the Italian coastguard in international waters every month are to be accommodated in Albania. The plan is to first check them on board the ships that rescue them and then send them to Albania for further processing of their applications. A court ruling on Friday thwarted this plan, which Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni described as a new model for dealing with illegal migration.

Meloni criticized the decision

The court in Rome rejected the detention of the twelve migrants on the grounds that they could not be sent back to their countries of origin - Bangladesh and Egypt - because the court did not consider them safe enough. Under Italian law, the detention of each migrant must be reviewed by special courts in Italy.

Meloni criticized the judges' decision and said that the classification of countries such as Bangladesh and Egypt as unsafe meant that practically all migrants would be excluded from the programme in Albania, making it unworkable. Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi announced an appeal against the ruling. Meloni plans to discuss the issue in the cabinet on Monday.