Migrants in Albania, detention not validated: tomorrow they return to Italy. Meloni: prejudices from judges. Schlein: financial damage

The immigration section of the Court of Rome did not validate the detention of the migrants inside the Italian detention centre for repatriation in Gjader, Albania. The measure had been ordered for the twelve foreigners by the Rome Police Headquarters on 17 October, who were part of the 16 migrants (ten from Bangladesh and six from Egypt) transported to Albania by the Italian Navy's Libra ship. The remaining four were brought back to Italy on a patrol boat: two declared themselves to be minors and therefore would not fall under the agreement between Rome and Tirana, which provides the procedure only for adult males; two others reported health problems.

None of the twelve detentions of as many migrants inside the Italian detention centre for repatriation in Gjader, Albania, was validated. According to the judges of the section, "the refusal to validate the detentions in the Albanian facilities and areas, equated to the Italian border or transit zones, is due to the impossibility of recognising as 'safe countries' the States of origin of the detained persons, with the consequence of the inapplicability of the border procedure and, as provided for by the Protocol, the transfer outside the Albanian territory of the migrants, who are therefore entitled to be brought to Italy". According to its ruling of 4 October, the European Court of Justice clarified that a country to be considered 'safe' must not be at risk of persecution or discrimination, as Egypt and Bangladesh are.

The twelve migrants for whom the Rome court did not validate their detention in the Italian repatriation centre in Gjader will leave Albania tomorrow on a navy ship to return to Italy by landing in Bari. This was reported by sources on the spot according to which the migrants could then be taken to a centre for asylum seekers. Despite the fact that the Territorial Commissions meeting yesterday rejected their asylum application, the migrants still have the possibility to appeal within fourteen days in order to ask again to be granted this status. The migrants had been rescued on the night of 13 October by the Guardia di Finanza in the international waters of the Italian Sar zone and transferred on board the Libra navy ship to the port of Shengjin and from there to the Gjader detention centre..

"It is very difficult to work and try to give answers to this nation when you also have the opposition of part of the institutions that should be helping to give answers," Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said at a press point in Beirut, calling the Rome judges' decision on migrants in Albania "prejudicial". She added: "I have convened a council of ministers for next Monday to approve regulations to overcome this obstacle because I think it is not up to the judiciary to say which countries are safe but up to the government," so "the government will have to clarify it better". Previously, the premier had written on social media: "Pd, M5S and AVS have presented a question to the European Commission asking if it intends to open an infringement procedure against Italy for the agreement on migratory flows with Albania. You have understood correctly: some Italian parties are in fact urging Europe to sanction its own nation and its own citizens, with the sole aim of politically striking this government. A disgrace that cannot go unnoticed" .

"I have respect for judges. We will do the battle within the judicial mechanisms. Battle in the sense of asserting international, European and national law. We will appeal and go all the way to the Supreme Court. Here we deny the government's right to activate accelerated procedures: to do in one month what otherwise takes three years'. So said Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi at a press conference in Ventimiglia on the Rome court's decision on migrants in the centre in Albania. And again: 'Not only will we go ahead with judicial appeals but we will also go ahead with these initiatives because from 2026 what Italy is doing in Albania, and not only, will become European law'.