By Alvise Armellini
BRUSSELS/ROME (Reuters) -Europe’s top court on Friday questioned the legitimacy of the “safe countries” list Italy uses to send migrants to Albania to await decisions on their asylum claims, in a fresh blow to a key aspect of the government’s migration policy.
Conservative Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s office, in a statement, called the court decision “surprising” and said it “weakens policies to combat mass illegal immigration and defend national borders”.
Meloni has presented the migrant detention facilities set up in Albania as a cornerstone of her tough approach to immigration, and other European countries have looked to them as a possible model.
However, the scheme stumbled on legal opposition almost as soon as it was launched last year – Italian courts ordered the return to Italy of migrants picked up at sea and taken to Albania, citing issues with European Union law.
In a long-awaited judgment, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) said Italy is authorised to fast-track asylum rejections for nationals coming from countries on a “safe” list – a principle at the heart of the Albania scheme.
It also said Italy is free to decide which countries are “safe”, but also warned that such a designation should meet strict legal standards and allow applicants and courts to access and challenge the supporting evidence.
In its statement, the ECJ said a Rome court had turned to EU judges citing the impossibility of accessing such information and thus preventing it from “challenging and reviewing the lawfulness of such a presumption of safety”.
The ECJ also said that a country might not be classified “safe” if it does not offer adequate protection to its entire population, effectively agreeing with Italian judges that had raised this issue last year.
The specific case that led to the ECJ’s opinion involved two Bangladeshi nationals who were rescued at sea by Italian authorities and taken to Italy’s detention centre in Albania, where their asylum claims were rejected based on Italy’s classification of Bangladesh as a “safe” country.
The detention facilities Italy set up in Albania are currently empty due to the controversy over their legality. Last week, a report found that their construction cost was seven times more than that of an equivalent centre in Italy.
(Reporting by Charlotte Van Campenhout and Alvise Armellini; editing by Dominique Vidalon and Mark Heinrich)
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