Italy's Albania migrant plan hits another snag as second group returns

Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni's program to screen asylum seekers outside of European Union borders in Albania hit another snag when a court in Rome refused to rule on a formal request to detain seven migrants transferred to the Balkan nation last week.

The decision meant the seven migrants, hailing from Bangladesh and Egypt, were brought to Italy overnight by naval ship, just days after their arrival in Albania.

Albanian media showed images of a minibus accompanied by Italian police vehicles entering the Albanian port of Shengjin, where the migrants were seen boarding a small ship. Italian media reported the ship docked in Brindisi, the Italian port across the Adriatic, a few hours later.

It is a repeat of what happened with the first 12 migrants in the program, who also were returned to Italy by another court decision last month shortly after the opening of two migrant screening centers in Albania operated by Italy.

In both cases, courts referred the cases to the EU court of justice in Luxembourg to rule if the countries of origin for the migrants are considered safe countries for repatriation. The first 12 were also from Egypt and Bangladesh.

The courts' move has raised the ire of Meloni's far-right-led government, which has been seeking strategies for easing the strain on Italy of the arrival of migrants seeking a better life in Europe.

In the latest decision, the court specified that it was seeking clarification on which countries are designated as safe "only to identify which procedure to apply."

"The exclusion of a state from the list of safe countries of origin does not prevent the repatriation and/or expulsion of those migrants whose asylum applications has been rejected,'' the court said in its ruling.

Under a five-year deal, Albania would allow Italy to run two migrant centers on its territory with the capacity to screen up to 3,000 migrants a month to be vetted for asylum or returned to their home countries. Human rights groups and nongovernmental organizations active in the Mediterranean have slammed the agreement as a dangerous precedent that conflicts with international laws.

So far, Italy has failed to identify anywhere close to that number for possible screening in Albania, despite thousands of arrivals on Italian shores since the centers opened. Migrants sent to Albania must be adult males, traveling without family members, and come from countries deemed safe.