It took only three days for the great Albanian project of the President of the Italian Council, Giorgia Meloni, to suffer an embarrassing setback. Friday October 18, while the far-right leader was expected in Beirut to respond to Israeli attacks against the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), a court in Rome inflicted a serious snub on her.
Judges in the Italian capital have in fact ordered the transfer to Italy of the first twelve migrants detained in the Italian law centers just opened on Albanian territory to process asylum requests and possible expulsions of exiles rescued at sea. Arrived on Wednesday October 16 on site, they boarded a coast guard ship on Saturday October 19 to leave Albania.
The eighteenth section of the court of Rome, competent over the procedures related to the Italian detention centers in Albania, decided that the migrants, of Bengali and Egyptian nationalities, had the right to be transported to Italy due to the impossibility of recognizing their States of origin as “safe” countries, democratic guarantees not being assured there.
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Only nationals of states placed by Rome in this category were supposed to be able to be detained in the structures set up in Albania. The decision was based on a judgment rendered on October 4 by the European Court of Justice opposing a Member State designating a third country as “safe” if it is only safe for part of its territory. territory or part of its population.
Restrictive frenzy
Called into question a few days after these first practical applications, the agreement between Italy and Albania required almost a year of preparation. Mme Meloni signed it with his Albanian counterpart, Edi Rama, in November 2023. Providing for the construction of two enclaves under Italian law in Albanian territory, it is valid for a period of five years. The framework of the pact organizes the simultaneous detention of up to a thousand healthy adult men, from third countries deemed “safe” and rescued in international waters by Italian authorities.
The migrants in question are officially not supposed to touch Albanian soil. Their asylum requests must be processed according to Italian law procedures, exactly as if they had landed on the Peninsula. The expulsion of rejected people is also supposed to be decided during their stay in these centers. Rome considers that such a system, while being governed by Italian law, would be dissuasive for candidates for exile.
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