Written by 
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said her top ministers had “reiterated the firm intention to continue to work on these so-called ‘innovative solutions’ to the migratory phenomenon”.
Meloni signed a deal with her Albanian counterpart, Edi Rama, in November 2023 to open two Italian-run centres in Albania to process some migrants rescued by Italian authorities in the Central Mediterranean.
The centres became operational in October but judges ruled against the detentions of the first two groups of men transferred there, who were instead sent to Italy.
The judges cited a recent ruling by the European Court of Justice (ECJ), which is now due to review the issue. In the meantime, transfers have stopped.
“There is only a small contingent of operators who supervise the structures while waiting for the resumption of activities,” Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi told Il Corriere della Sera daily.
But he insisted they would not close.
“The centres are ready and will be very useful to speed up the procedures for recognising [humanitarian] protection for those who are entitled to it, but above all for repatriating those who do not have the right,” he said.
Italy, like many other countries, draws up a list of so-called safe countries from which asylum seekers can have their applications fast-tracked.
Only men from these safe countries are eligible to be taken to the Albania centres.
But the judges who blocked the first transfer of migrants cited an ECJ ruling stipulating that EU states can only designate entire countries as safe, not parts of countries.
Italy’s list included some countries with unsafe areas.
Advertisement
In response, Meloni’s government passed a law limiting its safe list to 19 countries – from 22 – and insisting all parts of those nations were safe.
But judges then ruled against a second group of transferred migrants – seven men from Egypt and Bangladesh – saying they wanted clarification from the ECJ.
An ECJ hearing has been provisionally set for February, according to Italian media.
Meloni, leader of the Brothers of Italy party, took office in October 2022 pledging to stop the tens of thousands of migrants who arrive on Italy’s shores each year on boats from North Africa.