He Court of Rome sent this Monday to Justice of the European Union (EU) the situation of immigrants sent to the centers that the Italian government has built in Albania and, in the meantime, suspended the maintenance of a group of seven people.
The immigrants – 5 from Bangladesh and 2 from Egypt – were taken last Friday by the Italian military ship “Libra” to the controversial centers of Albania and their detention was “suspended”, therefore They will be sent back to Italyaccording to media reports.
East the second time that Justice prevents the centers from functioning built by the far-right government Giorgia Meloni to outsource the management of asylum procedures from Albania.
On October 16, the Roman Court decided directly not allowing the retention of a first group of 12 immigrants sent to these centers.
The judges, relying on a recent judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), then considered that for A country can be considered “safe”, it must be so throughout its territory and, for this reason, neither Egypt nor Bangladesh are.
THE ““Operation Albania” is part of the Meloni’s strategy to end irregular immigration coming from North Africa across the central Mediterranean.
The idea is to assign certain immigrants rescued on boats to these centers built in Albania, on the other side of the Adriatic Sea (with the agreement of their counterpart from the Balkan country, the social democrat Edi Rama).
A first center is located in the port of Shengjin, where immigrants are subject to an expedited process to determine whether they have the right to asylum, while the other, in Gjiader, is dedicated to receiving rejected people with a view to possible repatriation.
However, women, children, families or vulnerable people cannot be sent to centers in Albania, nor can immigrants who prove they are fleeing countries considered “dangerous”.
This strategy has not yet completely taken off. On October 14, the ship “Libra” took a first group of 16 immigrants to Albania but, ultimately, they were all sent back to Italy: four for being minors or “vulnerable” and the rest due to the decision of the Roman court.
The far-right Meloni government responded by decreeing the list of safe countries, now Egypt and Bangladesh, in order to facilitate the expulsion of the many immigrants from these countries who arrive via the Mediterranean.
Praise and criticism
Meloni’s early strategy It aroused enormous interest in European countries but was also widely criticizedparticularly because of its difficult feasibility and enormous cost.
All the immigrants who passed through Albania, numbering 24 in two different operations, were rescued near the island of Lampedusa and had to travel for two days to that country aboard a Navy ship .
But it also means a resounding clash between the executive and the judiciaryas government officials, such as vice president and leader of the far-right League, Matteo Salvini, have accused judges of playing politics by preventing detentions in Albanian centers.
The judge of the immigration section of the Rome court, Silvia Albano, denounced “intimidation and pressure”.
The Minister of Justice, Carlo Nordio, urged the judiciary this weekend to “apply the laws” without entering into its “political factor” and He encouraged his political partners to “lower their tone and avoid criticizing the convictions”.
Another controversy was triggered by the meeting held last week between Meloni and the vice-president of the Superior Council of the Judiciary, Fabio Pinelli, who was denounced as interference.
