By GB News (World News) | Created at 2024-11-14 09:41:56 | Updated at 2024-11-22 09:10:49
1 week ago
In what is being condemned as a blow for democracy, Georgia Meloni has been prevented from deporting illegal migrants under her Albania relocation scheme after a human rights appeal successfully blocked the bid.
This is the second loss for the Italian PM who has been battling with the Italian judiciary on the issue since the scheme's launch on October 11.
Italian judges ordered the transfer of seven men detained at a migration hub in Albania back to Italy in another setback to the agreement between the right-wing government in Rome and Tirana aimed at limiting the arrival of asylum seekers entering the country.
The men arrived at the Albanian port of Shëngjin aboard a military vessel, after being rescued in international waters while attempting to reach Europe.
The Italian government had argued that all the men should be returned to their “safe” home countries of Egypt and Bangladesh. One man from the group had already been taken to Italy after being deemed vulnerable.
The ruling is the second instance in which Italian judges have ordered the return of individuals from the Albanian hub to Italy. The decision is fuelling doubts in Italy and across the EU that migration processing and detention centres outside the bloc will work.
Georgia Meloni
Italian Partliament
Tech mogul Elon Musk condemned the decision on X: "This is unacceptable. Do the people of Italy live in a democracy or does an unelected autocracy make the decisions?"
The judges cited how Egypt had a poor human rights record and therefore sending illegal migrants from Egypt back to their home country would violate their human rights.
Meloni and the Italian government reacted in fury at the decision and highlighted it as another example of not being able to do the 'right thing for the country'
She blamed "politicised magistrates" who would like to "abolish Italy's borders".
“Another political sentence, not against the government, but against Italians and their security,” said the deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini.
The scheme could process up to 3000 men a month and transfer them back to their country of origin.
But since the hubs were opened on 11 October only 24 people have arrived in Albania in total - instead all the men involved in this case will be transferred back to Italy on order of the judges.
The Albania deal row has exacerbated already tense relations between the government and the judiciary. Justice minister Carlo Nordio attacked magistrates saying: "The definition of a safe country cannot be [left] up to the judiciary."
The decision in Italy will have huge ramifications for the rest of Europe who are looking at similar schemes to deal with uncontrolled migration across the continent.
The Rwanda deal has already been canned in the UK - but as Donald Trump takes a more stiff approach to migration pressure will increase on Europe to take control of its spiralling immigration levels.
