Italy judges deal new blow to Albania migrant scheme

A group of civil rights activists gather in protest, after the first group migrants intercepted in Italian waters, arrived at Shengjin port in Albania on October 16, 2024. [AFP]

Italian judges Monday rejected the detention of a group of migrants in Italian-run centres in Albania in a fresh blow to Rome by referring the case to Europe's top rights court.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's plan to outsource migrant processing to non-EU Albania has hit a second roadblock, with the seven men in question expected to be transferred shortly to Italy.

The policy is being closely scrutinised by Europe and the refusal to validate the detention requests comes despite the hard-right government's efforts to prevent challenges to the controversial scheme by changing Italian law.

The first attempt last month to detain 12 migrants from Bangladesh and Egypt in Albania was swiftly rejected by the Rome judges over Italy's definition of certain countries from which migrants hail as "safe".

Italy's law allowed certain migrants to be processed in Albania only if they came from "safe" countries".

The judges pointed to a recent European Court of Justice ruling that stipulated that EU states can only designate entire countries as safe, not parts of countries.

In response, Rome passed a law stating that all parts of the 19 countries on its "safe" list were safe.

That change sparked a series of requests from courts across Italy for the European court for guidance, with judges saying the national and European laws do not align.

The referral to the European court was done to "clarify various aspects of doubtful compatibility with supranational legislation" and Italy's law, the Rome judges wrote in a ruling viewed by AFP.

An interior ministry source confirmed that the Egyptian and Bengladeshi migrants would have to be transferred shortly to Italy.

Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, head of the anti-immigration League party, slammed "a political ruling, not against the government, but against Italians and their safety".

Opposition parties took to social media to slam a waste of state funds.

The centres in Albania opened last month. They can hold hundreds of migrants but currently stand empty.