A Rome court ordered the disruption of a recently established migration scheme from Italy to Albania, halting the transfer of seven more asylum seekers.
The asylum seekers, originally from Egypt and Bangladesh, were transferred from Italy to an Albanian centre on Friday. Monday’s court ruling means they are now being returned to Italy.
The judges had earlier blocked the detentions by declaring the applicants’ countries of origin unsafe based on a 4 October ruling by the EU Court of Justice. They suspended the proceedings and sent the government’s revised “safe country” decree back to the same court.
The criteria for designating a country as ‘safe’ are set by EU law. Therefore, notwithstanding national legislative prerogatives, judges must always verify – as in any legal sector – the proper application of EU law, which takes precedence over national law when incompatible, as the Italian Constitution also provides.
With this judgement, the Court of Rome confirms that the government’s hastily revised “safe country” decree, issued between the first and second migrant transfers to avoid further legal entanglements, still cannot override EU law. Meanwhile, courts in Bologna, Palermo and Rome have already referred relevant matters to the EU Court.
Monday’s ruling also marks another delay in an outsourcing project in Albania that opposition leaders say is costing the state millions as the centres have been empty for more than a month. According to a national tender, the two Albanian refugee centres will cost 653 million euros over five years. Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini declared:
Yet another politically motivated decision, not targeting the government, but Italians and their safety.
