On Friday 18 October, an Italian court invalidated the detention in Albanian centres of the first 12 asylum seekers that Rome transferred there this week, AFP, reported, while the President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, indicated on 16 October that the Commission would study the results of this experiment to provide input for possible new legislation on the return of irregular migrants.
The court referred in particular to a recent ruling by the European Court of Justice on countries of origin considered “safe” by host countries, according to which the 12 migrants concerned, from Bangladesh and Egypt, do not meet the detention criteria set out in the agreement between Rome and Tirana (see EUROPE 13497/16), adds AFP.
According to this ruling, a third country must be considered safe throughout its territory. At the end of 2023, Giorgia Meloni’s government signed an agreement with Tirana providing for the creation of two centres in Albania from which migrants rescued in the Mediterranean can apply for asylum.
The Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, expressed his doubts to the Financial Times on 17 October about the feasibility of this Italo-Albanian model and its possible extension to Europe. “These people are treated in accordance with Italian asylum legislation and, whatever happens to them, they will be returned to Italy in one way or another. If we had to do it at the European level, where would they go?”, he wondered. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)