Left-wing activist judges close to the social democrat opposition party did not give up the fight to completely block Italy’s so-called Albania protocol, and still aim to suspend the conservative government’s offshore migrant processing program indefinitely.
In a ruling on Monday, November 11th, the Rome civil court ordered seven migrants—five Bangladeshis and two Egyptians—to be brought back to Italy. The seven men were the second batch of migrants ever to be taken to Albania as part of Italy’s new asylum processing protocol, and the only ones staying in the centers at the moment.
The court aims to suspend the detention of migrants until at least July 2025, the scheduled date of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) opinion on Italy’s recently adopted emergency measure that strengthened the ‘safe country’ designation of 19 countries to which illegal migrants could be returned under law.
In response, the Italian interior ministry said it would appear before the ECJ soon in an attempt to put an end to the dispute once and for all.
The two migrant reception centers in Albania were opened last month with the aim of housing up to 36,000 male asylum seekers coming from ‘safe countries’ every year. Unlike in the case of migrant processing on Italian soil, where rejected asylum seekers often disappear into the Schengen zone before they can be deported, those housed in Albania cannot escape authorities or deportation.
As we also reported, the same court ordered the first batch of a dozen migrants sent to Albania to be returned to Italy last month, arguing that their native Bangladesh and Egypt could not be considered “safe” for all of their inhabitants, specifically LGBT individuals and political dissidents, respectively. Never mind that none of the migrants claimed to be part of either group.
In response, PM Giorgia Meloni’s government adopted an emergency amendment to elevate “safe country” designations from the level of a simple interministerial decree to primary law, thereby bypassing the ability of judges to challenge what should be purely political decisions, even according to the European Commission.
The court immediately began to undermine the new law by asking the European Court of Justice for its opinion on it. Nonetheless, the government went ahead and resumed the protocol by transporting the seven new migrants to Albania, arguing that they can’t wait for the ECJ decision scheduled for July 2025.
“If every time a rule is referred to the EU Court, that rule stopped being applied, we would live in anarchy,” Italian MEP Carlo Fidanza of the ruling Fratelli d’Italia party explained. “In no European country do [judges] ask not to proceed with repatriations. … Even Germany is sending back Afghans,” he added.
Yet that’s exactly what the Italian court is now trying to do. Regardless of the legality of the move, the judges aim to suspend all detentions while waiting for the ECJ’s decision. The longer Strasbourg takes, the better for them, even though their actions go directly against the wishes of voters and expose Italy, and the rest of the EU, to tens of thousands of illegal migrants who can continue to evade deportation.
The 2025 deadline also gives time for leftists in Brussels to lobby the court for their preferred outcome. Despite the EU Commission previously confirming that designating countries as “safe” strictly falls under government competence (in lack of a common EU framework), there’s no telling what will the ECJ decide in the end as the Strasbourg court has in the past demonstrated a high level of political partisanship.
