Italy’s much-debated program of sending asylum seekers to Albania restarted on Sunday, the Italian Inside Ministry stated, months after judges blocked the primary transfers there.
An Italian Navy vessel was carrying 49 folks to facilities Italy inbuilt Albania, the ministry stated. A ministry spokeswoman added that these being transferred had been intercepted at sea earlier than they reached Italy.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy has made the concept of holding new asylum seekers exterior the nation for evaluation a flagship coverage of her administration, describing it as an modern strategy to struggle unlawful immigration and to discourage migrants from taking dangerous boat journeys throughout the Mediterranean.
Ms. Meloni restarted this system after she eliminated the case from the jurisdiction of the judges in Rome who had dominated in opposition to the preliminary transfers. That ruling solid doubt on the way forward for this system. These judges stated that the 12 migrants that Italy had despatched to Albania in October had been ineligible for this system as a result of the nations they got here from, Bangladesh and Egypt, won’t be thought-about protected.
Since then, Ms. Meloni’s authorities additionally drafted a brand new record of nations it has deemed protected. Officers on the inside ministry didn’t present an inventory of nations the place the migrants got here from, however stated they had been from nations thought-about to be protected.
The plan has attracted condemnation from human rights teams and the Italian opposition, which have denounced it as merciless and overly costly. However some politicians throughout Europe, together with from mainstream events, see it as a possible mannequin for migration coverage at a time when anti-immigrant sentiment is more and more widespread. The president of the European Union’s government arm, Ursula von der Leyen, referred to as it “an instance of out-of-the-box considering, primarily based on truthful sharing of obligations with third nations.”
The choice by the judges in Rome to cease the transfers began a bitter dispute between Ms. Meloni and the Italian judiciary. Italian judges, together with the judges in Rome, have requested the European Court docket of Justice to make clear, amongst different points, who determines what a protected nation is. That court docket is anticipated to listen to the case subsequent months.
In Italy, the query of who may be shipped to Albania has now been transferred to a court docket of appeals in Rome.
Whereas the result of the try and revive the coverage stays unsure, Ms. Meloni has made clear that she intends to push it via a technique or one other.
“Belief me, the facilities in Albania will work,” she stated final month at her get together’s gathering in Rome. “Even when I should spend each evening on the case, from now to the top of this Italian authorities.”
Elisabetta Povoledo contributed reporting.
