Italy’s Meloni seeks to save Albania migration deal after court setback

Italy’s right-wing government, led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, approved a decree on Monday aimed at bypassing the legal obstacles of a controversial deal with Albania to detain and process migrants’ asylum claims in offshore centers.

The decree, which will automatically become law, allows the Italian government to designate entire countries as “safe” for the return of migrants.

The move comes after a Rome court ruled Friday that the first group of migrants sent to Albania as part of the deal could not be detained offshore because their countries of origin — Bangladesh and Egypt— could not be considered safe. According to Italy’s own rules for the scheme, only adult men who are not vulnerable and who are from designated safe countries can be sent to the centers.

The judges cited a ruling by the European Court of Justice, which states that EU member countries can only declare whole nations as safe, not specific regions. Some states Italy sought to designate as safe include unsafe areas.

During a press conference Monday evening, Justice Minister Carlo Nordio described the ECJ ruling as “very complex” — which is why, he argued, the Italian judges might not have understood it correctly.

“This ruling, in addition to reiterating the principle that the concept of safe states belongs to states, sets the condition for which states intend to give a different definition of ‘safe country’ in relation to specific cases,” he explained.

He also argued that some migrants might lie about their origins to avoid deportation.

“A person can come from a country that is completely safe but claim to be, for example, Bangladeshi,” he said, adding: “This is also something that should be corrected in my opinion.”