The first migrants sent to Albania for processing are being sent back to Italy

SHENGJIN, Albania – An Italian Navy ship brought the first twelve migrants back to Italy from newly opened asylum processing centers in Albania on Saturday, following a court ruling in Rome.

Friday’s court ruling represents a first stumbling block to a five-year deal between Italy and Albania under which Tirana would receive 3,000 migrants per month, picked up by the Italian coast guard. They will be checked for possible asylum in Italy or sent back to their home countries.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni welcomed the agreement as a new “model” for dealing with illegal migration.

The court in Rome rejected the detention of 12 migrants, saying they could not be sent back to their countries of origin – Bangladesh and Egypt – because the court did not consider them safe enough.

The Italian Navy ship took over the 12 from the port of Shengjin, 66 kilometers (40 miles) northwest of the capital Tirana. After arriving there this week, the four other migrants had already been turned away by center staff, two as vulnerable after undergoing health checks and two because they were minors.

According to Italian law, the detention of any migrant must be reviewed by special migration courts in Italy.

Meloni criticized the judges after the ruling, saying that designating countries like Bangladesh and Egypt as unsafe meant virtually all migrants would be excluded from the Albania program, making it unworkable. Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said the government would appeal the ruling.

Speaking to reporters during a trip to Lebanon, Meloni said she would convene a Cabinet meeting on Monday to discuss the issue.

“We will meet to adopt some standards that will allow us to overcome this obstacle,” Meloni said. “I believe it is up to the government, not judges, to determine which countries can be considered safe.”

Although Bangladesh and Egypt are not at war or facing major refugee crises, the judges in Rome said their decision was based on recent international rulings that consider discrimination or persecution in even one part of a country as grounds for such a decision.

Italy has agreed to accept those migrants who are granted asylum, while those whose applications are rejected will have to be deported directly from Albania.

The controversial agreement to outsource the accommodation of asylum seekers to a non-EU member state has been welcomed by some countries that, like Italy, are seeing high numbers of migrant arrivals.

The agreement was endorsed by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as an example of “out-of-box thinking” in tackling the problem of migration to the European Union.

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