New decree for migrants in Albania: the government's strategy

The Italian government will present a new decree-law - in the council of ministers convened on Monday at 6pm at Palazzo Chigi - to overcome judicial obstacles and allow the transfer of migrants to Albania. The aim is to raise to primary legislation the list of countries considered safe for the repatriation of migrants, which until now was regulated by an inter-ministerial decree. However, there are still questions to be resolved regarding the relationship with EU law and the specification of the parameters for considering a country safe.

"It is an absolute priority to fight those who exploit people's legitimate desire to find more favourable living conditions in order to fatten their profits". This was stated by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, commenting on an operation in Calabria against illegal immigration. "The government is determined to dismantle these criminal networks and to eradicate the illegal trafficking of human beings, which feeds the interests of the slavers of the Third Millennium," the premier added. Our commitment goes on. We will continue to work tirelessly to defend our borders and to re-establish a fundamental principle: only enter Italy legally, following the rules and procedures laid down".

'Meloni has no judicial enquiries against her and therefore she does not move for personal interests but for political visions and this makes her action much stronger, and also much more dangerous (...)'. Thus an exponent of Magistratura democratica'. Premier Giorgia Meloni writes this on social media, relaunching a passage from the email of the deputy prosecutor of the Cassation Marco Patarnello, published today by Time, with the headline "Meloni today is a stronger danger than Berlusconi. We must remedy this'.

Already in May, when the list of safe countries was updated, Silvia Albano - one of the judges of the immigration section of the Court of Rome and president of Magistratura democratica - underlined how the ministerial decree was a secondary normative source, subordinate to the Constitution, ordinary laws and EU regulations, and that therefore it was up to the judges to verify whether the safe country "can actually be considered such on the basis of what the law establishes". Exactly what was done - also in the light of a recent ruling by the EU Court of Justice - for the cases of the twelve asylum seekers taken to Albania on Wednesday and brought back to Bari by patrol boat.

The government's path seems to be that of making the indication of safe countries a primary norm and no longer a secondary one, as is the decree of the Minister of Foreign Affairs (in agreement with Justice and the Interior) with which the list has been updated annually up to now (the last one was on 7 May). In short, the attempt seems to be to raise the level of legislation on safe countries from secondary (ministerial decree) to primary (decree law). Among the hypotheses there is also that of making the judges' orders appealable so as to block their effect. Operation Albania, they assure in any case in the executive, will go ahead smoothly. The timing of the next landing at the port of Shengjin of an Italian military ship with migrants on board, they stressed, will also depend on sea conditions. Meanwhile, the cpr in Gjader immediately emptied.