The 43 asylum seekers taken earlier
this week by an Italian Navy ship to Albania as part of the
government's new fast-track processing scheme are set to reach
the Puglia port of Bari on Saturday night after a Rome appeals
court did not validate their detention at a new Italian-run
facility in the country.
The asylum seekers - who are from Bangladesh and Egypt - will be
taken to Bari by a port authority vessel.
They are expected to reach the southern Italian port city at
around 8:30 pm local time.
The migrants were in the third group taken to Albania as part
the government's new fast-track processing scheme under an
agreement between Rome and Tirana.
The Rome appeals court on Friday night referred their case to
the European Court of Justice to determine whether the countries
of provenance of the migrants could be deemed safe, "when the
substantial conditions for such a designation are not satisfied
for certain categories of people".
Italian judges had also refused to validate the detention of the
first two groups of asylum seekers (totalling 20 men) taken to
Albania back in October and November, under the agreement
between Rome and Tirana, referring their cases to the European
Court of Justice - which had established on October 4 that an
applicant could not go through a fast-track procedure that could
lead to their repatriation if their country of provenance was
not deemed wholly safe.
The countries of origin in the cases, Bangladesh and Egypt, were
not judged to be safe "over all of their territory".
The government has tried to get around this hurdle with a
measure listing 19 safe countries for repatriation.
They included both Bangladesh and Egypt.
The government also stripped the immigration sections of
ordinary courts which took the first two decisions not to
validate the detention, putting them up to appeals courts
instead, one of which ruled not to validate the detention of the
third batch of migrants on Friday night.
The European Court of Justice is set to rule on the Italian
courts' referrals on February 25.
Meanwhile sources at Premier Giorgia Meloni's office Palazzo
Chigi said the government was "working to also overcome this
obstacle" following the ruling.
Government sources expressed to ANSA "great surprise because we
don't believe there is any need to await a decision on the issue
of the European Court of Justice".
In a note, the Lower House whip of Premier Giorgia Meloni's
Brothers of Italy (FdI) party, Galeazzo Bignami, condemned the
"resistance of part of the Italian judiciary against measures
adopted to guarantee security and fight irregular migration".
Elly Schlein, the leader of the largest member of the
centre-left opposition, the Democratic Party (PD), spoke about
an "incredible failure" of the government's Albania scheme,
asking for a report on the cost of the plan which, she said,
"has reached over one billion euros, according to our estimates,
which could have been invested to hire doctors and nurses" in
public hospitals.
Overall, a total of 49 people were part of the third batch of
migrants intercepted south of Lampedusa and taken to Albania
last Tuesday by the Cassiopea Navy vessel.
Six were subsequently taken back to Italy because they were
minors or considered to be vulnerable.
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