Italian Courts Push Back Against Meloni’s Efforts To Send Migrants To Detention Center In Albania- wna24
An Italian navy ship has taken migrants to Italy from asylum processing centres in Albania following a court decision in Rome and is bringing them back to Italy. It was the third failed attempt by Giorgia Meloni’s far-right government to process migrants in the non-EU country.
An Italian appeals court on Friday refused to approve the speedy expulsion of 43 asylum seekers detained in Albania under a controversial migration deal to move the proceedings beyond the European Union’s borders.
The appeals court in Rome referred the case to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, which is expected to issue a ruling on Feb. 25 related to the previous cases.
Lorenzo Trucco, President of Italy’s Association of Juridical Studies on Immigration praised the decision but was concerned it was only a small step to protect migrants whose basic rights are being increasingly overlooked.
“There is this wind of authoritarianism of compression of rights,” Trucco explained, “Migrant asylum seekers are not considered as real subjects of law, but people who have very limited access to rights.”
Earlier this week, Meloni expressed her frustrations with her legal difficulties and lashed back at those who block her policies during a video appearance at a conference hosted by an Italian journalist.
Meloni compared herself to Penelope, the mythical wife of Ulysses who spends her days weaving a cloth only to undo it at night so she will never finish.
In the two previous cases, judges similarly refused to approve the expulsion of much smaller groups of migrants, in both cases seeking clarity from the European court on which countries were safe for repatriation of people whose asylum claims are rejected.
Italy last year signed a five-year agreement to process up to 3,000 migrants a month beyond the EU borders as part of Meloni’s program to combat illegal migration to Italy, which is the first landfall for tens of thousands of migrants who make the perilous journey across the central Mediterranean Sea.
While the agreement has raised concerns among human rights activists, European partners have expressed interest in the project.
The 43 migrants were among 49 people who were transferred to Albania on an Italian naval ship Tuesday. Italian media reported they were from Bangladesh, Egypt, Ivory Coast and Gambia.
The 49 migrants were among 3,704 who arrived in Italy through Jan. 27, with arrivals up more than double the same period last year.