The Italian authorities have resumed this Monday the shipments of migrants to Albania with a group that was rescued in international waters and who will be transferred after the Government’s legal modification with a new list of safe countries. In spite of this, a court has withdrawn this same Monday Egypt’s safe country classification.
Thus, the Italian navy ship Libra has rescued a group of migrants in international waters south of the island of Lampedusa that will be taken directly to reception centers in Albania. The Italian Minister of the Interior, Matteo Piantedosi, has assured that the expulsions will be carried out by the Italian Navy. “can be resumed” on the basis of a new decree. which modifies the definition of a safe country to facilitate these shipments.
Piantedosi, moreover, has ruled out that there could be a new intervention by the judiciary. “I don’t think it will happen again, but in that case there would be the appropriate spaces. We have already filed appeals before the Court of Cassation,” he stressed. However, what is certain is that a court in Catania has annulled the arrest warrant of an Egyptian who had requested refuge after landing at Sicilyconsidering that their country of origin is not a “safe country”.
Specifically, this court cites the “serious violations of human rights in Egypt” that “persist in a general and constant manner” and affect “not only large and undefined categories of personsbut also to the very core of the fundamental freedoms that characterize a democratic system and that must constitute the frame of reference in which the notion of a safe country is embedded”.
Therefore, the court decides “not to apply the decree-law of October 23, 2024 for the purposes of the decision”, since the publication of a list of safe countries by the government “does not exempt the judge from the obligation to verify compatibility” of such “designation with European Union law”.
Last October 18, a court in Rome declared illegal the detention in Albania of 16 migrants transferred from Italy and ordered their return under the argument that the countries of origin of these persons, Bangladesh y Egyptcannot be considered safe. The Government described this court decision as “abnormal”. and has issued a new decree listing of safe countries to facilitate expulsions.