Il tribunale di Roma ha dichiarato illegali i trasferimenti dei migranti in Albania.  Now all of them must be transferred to Italy.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s five-year deal to send migrants rescued at sea to camps in Albania for processing has been dealt a significant blow by the courts only days after the first arrivals. L’immigration court in Rome ruled that the 12 migrants sent to the camp at Gjader, not far from the Adriatic coast in northern Albania, should be brought back to Italy because they were from countries considered unsafe to be returned to.

The 12 migrants were part of the first batch of 16 migrants to be sent to the two centres that opened last week under a five-year deal to host 3,000 migrants per month picked up by the Italian Coast Guard to vet them for possible asylum in Italy or to be sent back to their countries.

However, under Italian law, each migrant’s detention must be reviewed by special migration courts in Italy. On Friday, a court in Rome rejected the detention of 12 of the migrants, arguing that they cannot be sent back to their countries of origin—Bangladesh and Egypt—because the court did not deem the countries to be safe enough. The four other migrants had already been rejected by centre staff as vulnerable after undergoing health and other screenings.

The verdict represents an early stumbling block in the arrangement between Italy and Albania that Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government has accepted as a new “model” for handling illegal migration.

Meloni slammed the judges following the ruling and said that deeming countries such as Bangladesh and Egypt unsafe means that virtually all migrants would be barred from the Albania programme, making it unworkable. Her interior minister, Matteo Piantedosi, said the government would appeal the ruling. Speaking to reporters during a trip to Lebanon, Meloni said she would convene a Cabinet meeting on Monday to discuss the issue. “We’ll meet to approve some norms that will allow us to overcome this obstacle,” Meloni said. “I believe it’s up to the government and not magistrates to establish which countries can be considered safe.”

The anti-migration League party, part of Meloni’s coalition government, accused the judges of being activists who made politically motivated decisions.

The Italian centre-left opposition responded by stressing that the current scheme is expensive, complicated and damaging to migrants’ rights.

The Italian agreement with Albania is aimed at processing and then repatriating about 3,000 irregular migrants rescued from the Mediterranean a month in two camps.  The deal does not include women or children, and the first group of men arrived in Albania on Wednesday on board an Italian navy ship, three days after they were part of a group of 85 people picked up at sea. Although Bangladesh and Egypt are not at war or facing any significant refugee crises, the Rome judges said their decision to deem them unsafe was based on recent international rulings that consider discrimination or persecution in even a part of a country as grounds for such a determination.

The centres will cost Italy 670 million euros over five years. Italy runs and controls the facilities, while Albanian guards provide external security.

The controversial agreement to outsource housing services for asylum seekers to a non-EU country has been welcomed by some countries with high immigrant arrivals, such as Italy.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen approved the agreement as an example of “thinking outside the box” in solving the problem of migration to the European Union. The European Court of Justice spelt out current European law only two weeks ago, which said a country could only be considered safe if “persecution… torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment is never resorted to.”

Italy’s deal with Albania is being watched closely elsewhere in Europe, including the UK. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said he had discussed the “concept” of Italy’s deal with Meloni last month. EU leaders agreed at a summit on Thursday that returns of irregular migrants should be speeded up.

Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said the government would take the case to appeal, insisting that Italy’s migrant camp plan would become European law within two years.