It only took three days for the great Albanian project of the president of the Italian Council, Giorgia Meloni, to suffer an embarrassing setback. On Friday, October 18, while the far-right leader was expected to be in Beirut to respond to Israeli attacks on the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), a court in Rome dealt her a serious snub.
In fact, the judges in the Italian capital ordered the transfer to Italy of the first twelve immigrants detained in the newly opened Italian judicial centers in Albanian territory to process asylum applications and possible expulsions of exiles rescued at sea. It will leave Albania on Saturday, October 19 aboard a coast guard vessel.
The eighteenth section of the Rome court, competent in proceedings related to the Italian detention centers in Albania, decided that the immigrants, of Bengali and Egyptian nationality, had the right to be transported to Italy due to the impossibility of recognizing their States of origin. origin as “safe” countries, since democratic guarantees are not assured there.
It was assumed that only nationals of the States placed by Rome in this category could be detained in the structures created in Albania. The decision was based on a ruling handed down on October 4 by the Court of Justice of the European Union that opposes a Member State designating a third country as “safe” if it is only safe for part of its territory or part of its population.
restrictive frenzy
Questioned a few days after these first practical applications, the agreement between Italy and Albania required almost a year of preparation. METROme Meloni signed it with his Albanian counterpart, Edi Rama, in November 2023. It provides for the construction of two enclaves under Italian law on Albanian territory and is valid for five years. The framework of the pact organizes the simultaneous detention of up to a thousand healthy adult men, coming from third countries considered “safe” and rescued in international waters by the Italian authorities.
Officially, the immigrants in question must not touch Albanian soil. Their asylum applications must be processed according to the procedures of Italian law, exactly as if they had landed on the Peninsula. The expulsion of rejected persons should also be decided during their stay in these centres. Rome considers that such a system, although governed by Italian law, would be a deterrent to candidates for exile.
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