Italy adopts decree to overrule court objections on Albanian migrant camps

By Angelo Amante

ROME (Reuters) -Italy's government on Monday passed a decree aimed at overcoming court objections to its flagship immigration plan that is aimed at deterring boat migrants by sending them to detention camps in Albania.

The plan, launched last week, was immediately undermined as a Rome court said the first batch of asylum seekers dropped off in Albania had to be brought to Italy because their countries of origin - Egypt and Bangladesh - could not be considered safe.

The government initiative proposes sending to Albania male migrants from so-called "safe countries", which means they have little chance of winning asylum. If, as expected, their request for residency in Italy were rejected, they would be repatriated.

However, the Rome court decision called into question the entire Italian project and sparked a fierce row between Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's rightist administration and the judiciary.

The Rome court acted on the basis of a recent ruling by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in a case involving the Czech Republic, which said a country outside the EU cannot be declared safe unless its entire territory is deemed free of danger.

Looking to overcome this unexpected legal hurdle, the government upgraded the legal status of its list of safe countries, making it an act of law rather than a lesser ministerial decree, believing this means it will be harder for courts to challenge its validity.

It also removed three of the original 22 states on the list -- Nigeria, Columbia and Cameroon -- because of specific concerns about the safety situation in those nations.

"(Our move) stems from a very detailed ruling by the EU Court of Justice that was probably not well understood," Justice Minister Carlo Nordio told reporters, taking a swipe at the Rome court for the way it had interpreted the EU ruling.

DOUBTS PERSIST

Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi added that the new law "provides a standard" for judges to follow, rather than indulge in a "wavering interpretation" of the EU judgment.

Meloni had denounced the decision to transport the first group of migrants to Italy, calling it prejudiced, while Nordio said at the time it was "abnormal" for judges to establish which countries could be deemed as safe.

The magistrates' union said the court had merely complied with the requirements of EU law.

However, it is unclear whether the new decree will prevent judges in future from rejecting requests to detain migrants in Albania, experts say.

"The conflict with the European law, which is superior to the national legislation, remains ... unless Italy wants to say European sources are not binding on this matter," said Salvatore Curreri, a constitutional law professor at Enna Kore University.

Italy's Albania plan, which evoked comparisons with Britain's aborted scheme to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, was highlighted as a possible model for other EU nations by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

The scheme was inaugurated last Wednesday when 16 migrants were brought ashore to Albania. Four were taken to Italy within hours because they were underage or because they were unwell, while the remaining 12 followed them soon afterwards thanks to the intervention of the Rome court.

(Reporting by Angelo Amante, editing by Alvise Armellini and Susan Fenton)