The Italian coast guard returned this Saturday on a Navy ship the 12 migrants that Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni deported to Albania. This comes after the courts overturned Meloni’s plan to detain migrants in the Balkan country because he considers their countries of origin unsafe. While far-right politicians accuse Justice of prevent the defense of the Italian borders.
Not even 24 hours after the decision of the Italian courts, the first 12 asylum seekers sent to the “shame” centers were already heading towards the port of Bari. The judgment of the Court of Rome known this Friday is a first obstacle to the five-year agreement concluded between Italy and Albania so that Tirana welcomes every month 3,000 migrants rescued from the sea by the Italian coast guard.
The Italian ship picked up the 12 people in the port of Shengjin66 kilometers (40 miles) northwest of the capital, Tirana, and are expected to arrive this Saturday afternoon on Italian territory. Four other migrants had already been turned away earlier this week by detention center staff, including two because they were considered vulnerable. after passing health checks and two others for being a minor.
The Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, presented his project as a new “model” of illegal immigration management, but the Rome court rejected the detention on the grounds that they cannot be returned to their countries of origin – Bangladesh and Egypt – because it does not consider them sufficiently safe .
Meloni defends his project and attacks Justice
Meloni says that with its decision, Justice prevents the defense of Italian borders. “What the judges say is that there are no safe countries, which is why I officially announce that the problem does not come from Albania. The problem is that no one can be repatriated anymore.“The problem is that we cannot reject people, the problem is that we cannot make policies to defend the borders,” he argued. He also called a meeting of Parliament. Council of Ministers for next Monday “to approve regulations which serve to overcome the obstacle” now imposed by Justice.
For his part, the head of Justice of the Italian government, Carlo Nordio, called this Saturday “abnormal” the judgment of the Court of Rome. “We do not agree with the sentence and we consider it abnormal,” Nordio said in press statements after an event in Palermo. All this is happening in the face of growing conflict between Executive power and justice by the judgment rendered Friday by the Rome Court of First Instance.
Following the announcement of this Friday’s decision, which caused a stir among government partners and was perceived positively by opposition groups, Nordio assured that the reaction of the executive “was not against the judiciary”, but against the court’s decision. “We will take legislative measures“Given this, Nordio has warned.
