Italy collects migrants from Albania after government defeat in court

The Italian coastguard on Saturday collected 43 migrants from a camp in Albania following the latest legal defeat for the Italian government’s plan to process asylum applications in the non-EU country.

The migrants, who had crossed the Mediterranean, were expected to arrive in Bari, a port on Italy’s south-eastern coast directly across the Adriatic Sea from Albania, on Saturday evening.

An appeals court in Rome had earlier ruled that the 43 men had to be released and brought back to Italy.

The men were picked up by the Italian navy this week and taken directly to Albania, where far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s administration has set up camps to house migrants while their applications are processed.

This is the third legal defeat in a row for Meloni’s plan, following court rulings in October and November.

The two camps set up in Albania at a cost of more than €650 million ($675 million) for the purpose of taking in migrants remain empty.

Meloni, who heads the far-right Brothers of Italy, has insisted that she is sticking to her plans, but it is not clear whether her three-party coalition will transport more migrants to the camps before the European Court of Justice (ECJ) rules on the “Albania Model” on February 25.

The key issue before the ECJ is whether the migrants’ countries of origin can be considered as safe.

The latest case concerns migrants from Bangladesh, Egypt, Gambia and the Ivory Coast.

In Albania, Italian officials summarily rejected all their asylum applications. The Rome court has reversed this decision.

Italy is the first country in the European Union to set up facilities outside the bloc’s borders to process asylum applications.

The future of the “Albania model” is being closely monitored by other governments. Migrant arrivals in Italy reached 3,368 in January, up from 2,258 in January last year, according to the Italian Interior Ministry’s figures.