The first 16 asylum seekers return to Italy by court decision.
Albania is located directly across the Adriatic Sea from Italy, but is not part of the European Union. Image: Florion Goga/REUTERS
Italy’s plan to process asylum requests in Albania was seriously damaged on Friday, just days after sending the first group of migrants to the Balkan country.
A Rome court ruled that 12 of the 16 migrants sent to Albania on Monday should return to Italy.
The judges said the men could not return to their countries of origin, Egypt and Bangladesh, because those countries were not considered safe for people to return to.
The plan to send immigrants to detention centers in Albania is a flagship policy of the far-right government led by Prime Minister Georgia Meloni. His party, Fratelli d’Italia (FdI), said he would appeal the decision.
Speaking to reporters during a trip to Lebanon, Meloni called the decision “unilateral” and said it was up to his government to determine which countries were safe and which were not.
“Perhaps the government should clarify better what a safe country means,” he said.
Meloni called a cabinet meeting on Monday to decide the government’s response to the court’s decision.
The other four migrants have already returned to Italy after staff at the detention center in Albania found them too vulnerable to be processed abroad.
