ROME — On Friday, an Italian appellate court denied the swift removal of 43 asylum seekers who had been held in Albania as part of a contentious migration agreement aimed at relocating asylum processes outside of the European Union.
The asylum requests of these migrants had already been denied, and they are scheduled to be returned to Italy on Saturday morning. This incident marks a third unsuccessful effort by Giorgia Meloni’s far-right administration to manage the migrant situation in Albania.
The appeals court based in Rome has forwarded the matter to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, which is anticipated to provide a decision on February 25 concerning earlier cases.
Earlier rulings from lower courts have highlighted a growing rift between the Meloni government and the Italian judiciary, a divide exacerbated by the recent expulsion of a notorious Libyan warlord who had been detained in Italy under an International Criminal Court warrant for alleged human rights violations.
In previous instances, judges similarly declined to sanction the removal of smaller migrant groups, expressing the need for clarification from the European court regarding which nations are deemed safe for the repatriation of individuals whose asylum applications have been denied.
Last year, Italy entered into a five-year pact designed to process a maximum of 3,000 migrants per month outside EU territories. This initiative is part of Meloni’s broader strategy to mitigate illegal migration to Italy, a common destination for many who undertake the treacherous journey across the central Mediterranean.
While the program has sparked alarm among human rights advocates, it has garnered interest from Italy’s European partners.
The group of 43 migrants was part of a larger cohort of 49 individuals transferred to Albania on an Italian naval ship earlier this week. According to reports from Italian media outlets, these migrants hail from various countries including Bangladesh, Egypt, Ivory Coast, and Gambia.
Thus far in 2023, Italy has seen the arrival of 3,704 migrants by January 27, with numbers showing more than a twofold increase from the same timeframe in the previous year.
