The government will continue to fight
irregular immigration by proceeding with its plan to process
asylum applications in Albania as part of a scheme to create
regional hubs that is backed by European partners, sources close
to the interior ministry said on Saturday.
"The government will move forward in the conviction that the
fight against irregular immigration, which takes advantage of
the instrumental use of asylum requests, is the road to pursue
to fight the affairs of ruthless traffickers", said the sources.
The protocol between Rome and Tirana for the fast-track
processing of asylum requests at Italian-run centres in Albania
"is the starting point for the creation of real regional hubs on
which there is full agreement with European ministers", the
sources also noted.
The sources went on to say that at a Home Affairs Council held
in Warsaw this week, "the position of Interior Minister Matteo
Piantedosi was widely shared by the colleagues present.
"European partners, in full agreement with the Commission, are
thinking about strengthening EU rules that support border
procedures also applied in Albania, not only by moving up the
entry into force of the pact's rules but also through innovative
solutions".
"The same documents discussed in Warsaw explicitly refer to the
Italy-Albania Protocol as a valid example of innovative
cooperation with a third country", the sources noted.
The new migration and asylum pact comes into force in 2026.
A coast guard ship on Saturday was taking back to Italy from
Albania 43 migrants after a Rome appeals court did not validate
their detention in the country under a scheme that has so far
been stymied by the courts.
Under the government's plan, when up to speed the Albanian
centres are set to process around 3,000 migrants a month.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has hailed
the accord as a possible model for other countries, and there
have been several expressions of interest.
Meanwhile, speaking about previous court rulings on the
detention of asylum seekers at fast-track processing centres, in
Albania and in Italy, the interior ministry sources said the
current case law was short sighted and "set to be overtaken by
events, given that appeals courts choose to refer (cases) to the
European Court of Justice, substantially to gain time, when it
is a system already provided for by the new European Pact on
Migration and Asylum that will come into force in 2026 at the
latest".
Rome's appeals court on Friday night said that the decree
approved by the government in December listing 19 safe countries
for repatriation does not mention whether all categories of
people are safeguarded and fails to include "specific sources of
information on the condition of the countries included in the
list", according to judicial sources.
Therefore, the appeals judges said that, "regarding the social
and political conditions of the countries" involved, they needed
to consider the "information available and used for the previous
interministerial decree of May 7 2024" that was replaced by the
new decree approved in December.
Such information source, they said, reported that security
conditions in Bangladesh and Egypt, the countries of provenance
of the asylum seekers taken to Albania, "were not respected for
all categories of people", such as members of the Lgbtqi+
community, victims of gender-based violence, including genital
mutilation, ethnic and religious minorities, members of the
political opposition and people sentenced to death.
Given the "different interpretation" of European and Italian
legislation on what constitutes a safe countries, the Rome
magistrates referred the case to the European Court of Justice,
which is expected to rule on the issue on February 25.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
