Italian court refers asylum seekers’ case to ECJ in challenge to Meloni’s migrant deal with Albania

ROME (AP) — An Italian appeals court on Friday refused to approve the speedy expulsion of 43 asylum seekers detained in Albania under a controversial migration deal to move the proceedings beyond the European Union’s borders.

The migrants, whose asylum requests have already been rejected, will now be brought back to Italy after the third failed attempt by Giorgia Meloni’s far-right government to process migrants in Albania.

The appeals court in Rome referred the case to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, which is expected to issue a ruling on Feb. 25 related to the previous cases.

The series of lower court rulings have opened a fissure between the Meloni government and the Italian judicial system that has only deepened with the expulsion earlier this month of a Libya warlord who had been arrested in Italy on an International Criminal Court warrant alleging crimes against human rights.

In the two previous cases, judges similarly refused to approve the expulsion of much smaller groups of migrants, in both cases seeking clarity from the European court on which countries were safe for repatriation of people whose asylum claims are rejected.

Italy last year signed a five-year agreement to process up to 3,000 migrants a month beyond the EU borders as part of Meloni’s program to combat illegal migration to Italy, which is the first landfall for tends of thousands of migrants who make the perilous journey across the central Mediterranean Sea.

While the agreement has raised concerns among human rights activists, European partners have expressed interest in the project.

The 43 migrants were among 49 people who were transferred to Albania on an Italian naval ship Tuesday. Italian media reported they were from Bangladesh, Egypt, Ivory Coast and Gambia.

The 49 migrants were among 3,704 who arrived in Italy through Jan. 27, with arrivals up more than double the same period last year.