The Italian Navy ship Cassiopea arrived in Albania with 49 migrants intercepted at sea, primarily from Bangladesh. Their asylum applications will be processed in Albania, following an agreement between Italy and Albania to set up processing centers. Previous attempts to use these centers faced legal challenges when Italian judges ruled that the migrants' countries of origin were not safe. Despite setbacks, Italian Prime Minister Meloni's government plans to reopen these centers, supported by a ruling from Italy's highest court on the safety determination process for repatriation.
The attempt to process migrants in Albania comes after two previous failures in October and November, when Italian judges refused to approve the detention of two small groups at Albanian processing centres.
The cases have been referred to the European Court of Justice, which earlier established that asylum applicants could not undergo a fast-track procedure that could lead to repatriation if their home countries are not deemed completely safe.
Collection
[
|
...
]