Italy will move forward with its
innovative and controversial programme of operating migrant
processing centres in Albania to deter illegal immigration
despite recent legal hurdles that have stymied it so far,
Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said after a government summit
on the policy Monday.
"We had a meeting with the Prime Minister (Giorgia Meloni),
(Defence) Minister (Guido) Crosetto, (Interior) Minister
(Matteo) Piantedosi, (European Affairs) Minister (Tommaso) Foti,
Cabinet Secretary (Alfredo) Mantovano, Undersecretary
(Giovanbattista) Fazzolari and we reiterated our commitment to
follow the path that the European Union has also recognized,
even at the last Council," said Tajani, who is also deputy
premier, referring to statements of appreciation and interest
from European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and
several EU members.
"We will move forward to combat human traffickers, to respect EU
rules.
"The innovative solutions have been appreciated and are also
appreciated by other countries".
"We have had a ruling from the (supreme Cassation) Court that
confirms the validity of the government's choices," said Tajani,
referring to a recent decision by the Cassation which showed
that the government has the right to say which countries are
safe for repatriation.
"We will continue to work in this direction with great serenity,
with great seriousness", said the centre-right post Berlusconi
Forza Italia (FI) party leader.
Tajani was speaking on the sidelines of a visit to Italy's
contingent in the international peacekeeping force in Kosovo,
KFOR.
Meloni held the meeting with the ministers on getting the
government's much-trumpeted scheme to process migrants at
Italian-run centres in Albania operational after it was blocked
by legal obstacles.
Italian judges refused to validate the detention of the first
two groups of asylum seekers (totalling 12 men) 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 adjudged to be safe "over all of their territory".
The government has tried to get around this hurdle with a
measure listing 19 safe countries for repatriation.
They once again included both Bangladesh and Egypt.
The countries are: Albania, Algeria, Bangladesh,
Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cape Verde, Cote d'Ivoire, Egypt, Gambia,
Georgia, Ghana, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Morocco, Montenegro,
Peru, Senegal, Serbia, Sri Lanka and Tunisia.
During Sunday's 'North-South Summit' on European security and
defence in Saariselkä, in the Finnish region of Lapland, Meloni
said the Cassation verdict stated that the government was
entitled to say which countries are safe for repatriation, no
matter what any European court says.
"The Cassation has said we are right about safe countries,"
Meloni said.
The government is aiming to get the scheme, which has stirred
the interest of many other European countries, up and running
again in the new year, government sources have said.
The Albania scheme 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.
When up to speed the two centres are projected to be able to
process a yearly total of 3,000 migrants.
Last year over 150,000 migrants reached Italy's shores, although
the numbers are currently sharply down this year.
In the first eight months of 2024, according to official
figures, some 42,006 refugees and migrants arrived in Italy by
sea, compared to 114,612 in the same period last year, a
decrease of 63 per cent.
But the centre-left opposition says the scheme is "an expensive
propaganda stunt" that allegedly unacceptably externalises
Italy's immigration
policy and sets up a "new Guantanamo".
After the contingent of Italian police supposed to guard the
centres recently came home, the scheme's critics claimed the
government was spending millions on "an empty Albanian dog
pound".
However, as well as von der Leyen, British Prime Minister Keir
Starmer is among the several foreign officials who have voiced
interest in the Italy-Albania protocol as a model for deterring
migrant
departures.
Meloni recently chaired an EC-sponsored meeting in which the
leaders of Denmark, the Netherlands, Cyprus, Czech Republic,
Greece, Hungary, Malta, Poland and Sweden expressed curiosity
about the policy.
Elon Musk, a friend of Meloni's, has also hailed the protocol
and joined a chorus of right-wing vitriol against the Italian
judges who have so far blocked its implementation.
Musk, the world's richest man and President-elect Donald Trump
new efficiency czar, spurred claims of meddling by saying "these
judges must go".
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