After a two-month-long pause caused
by legal obstacles, operations to take migrants rescued in the
Mediterranean to Italian-run processing centres in Albania have
resumed, sources said on Saturday.
Italian Navy patrol vessel Cassiopea, which is anchored in
international waters some 20 miles from the island of Lampedusa,
took 11 migrants on board, Egyptians and Bangladeshis, on Friday
and Saturday, the sources said.
They are set to part of the third group of migrants taken to
Albania after the first two operations under the controversial
scheme in October and November.
The ship is waiting to take on more people before heading to the
Albanian port of Shengjiin.
Italian judges refused to validate the detention of the first
two small groups of asylum seekers taken to Albania, under an
agreement between Rome and Tirana, referring their cases to the
European Court of Justice - which had earlier established that
an applicant could not go through a fast-track procedure that
could lead to their repatriation if their country of provenance
was not deemed wholly safe.
The countries of origin in the cases, Bangladesh and Egypt, were
not judged to be safe "over all of their territory".
The government in December tried to get around this hurdle with
a measure listing 19 safe countries for repatriation, including
both Bangladesh and Egypt.
The Albania scheme, the result of an agreement between Premier
Giorgia Meloni and Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, has been
criticised by Italy's opposition for being expensive - around
800 million euros over five years - and addressing only a drop
in the ocean of migrants that reach Italy each year.
But the European Commission and several European leaders have
expressed interest in it becoming a possible model for managing
migrants outside of EU territory.
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