In January the government aims to resume migrant transfers to Albania. Also strong of ruling of the Supreme Court of December 19th which “proved us right” and of the right-wing wind blowing in Europe, pushing towards the defense of external borders. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni from Saariselka, in Finnish Lapland, announces that she has called for today “a meeting on the topic to understand how to proceed”.
Between one sentence and another, therefore, the prime minister carries on after having promised a few days ago that “the centers will work, even if I have to spend there every night between now and the end of the Italian government”. At Palazzo Chigi there will also be the deputy prime minister and foreign minister Antonio Tajani (connecting from Kosovo), the undersecretary Alfredo Mantovano, the ministers of the Interior, Defense and European Affairs, Matteo Piantedosi, Guido Crosetto and Tommaso Foti.
Piantedosi will report on arrivals by sea, which is in sharp decline this year: 65 thousand against 153 thousand in 2023. We will take stock – also in light of the latest pronouncement of the stoats – on the conditions for reactivating the Albania project at the beginning of next year, after the false start. In fact, the judges have so far rejected the detention of asylum seekers in Albanian centres. To overcome the obstacle the government – with an amendment inserted in the flows decree – has transferred the jurisdiction of decisions on detention from the magistrates of the immigration sections to the Courts of Appeal. With the hope of having favorable decisions. The measure becomes operational 30 days after the law comes into force, i.e. on January 11th.
From that moment, therefore – this is the line that could emerge from tomorrow’s meeting – Libra will be able to return to bringing migrants to the port of Shengjin. Meanwhile, last December 19th there was a ruling from the Supreme Court that the centre-right interpreted as supporting its position. The ruling – on a case that precedes the decree with which the government redefined the list of safe countries – recognizes politics’ right to establish a differentiated regime of asylum applications for those coming from countries designated as safe. And therefore the judge “cannot replace” the Foreign Minister, nor “can he annul the ministerial decree with erga omnes effects”. The magistrate can, however, evaluate whether the designation is legitimate and possibly disapply “incidentally” the decree on safe countries. And if the opposition claimed victory by underlining this last aspect, the majority’s interpretation was different.
“It seems to me – said Meloni – that the Court of Cassation agreed with the government, it is the right of governments to establish which countries are safe”, while the judges can “enter into the individual case, not disapply it entirely”. We need, he added, “to think outside the box: Italy was the first to make an agreement with a non-EU country, we are having some problems in interpreting the rules but we are overcoming them, it is a new way of dealing with this problem “. The idea therefore seems to be to resume transfers to Albania without waiting for further decisions.
The Court of Cassation, in fact, has yet to rule on the appeals presented by the government against the first failed validations of the detention of migrants issued by the immigration section of the Rome court on 18 October. In the hearing on 4 December, the PG, on the subject of the definition of safe countries, asked the supreme judges to suspend the judgment pending the EU Court of Justice’s ruling in March.
Meanwhile, the government is trying to broaden consensus in Europe on the new rules for repatriations and safe countries and anticipate the times. A framework of European rules different from the current ones, reflecting the changed political balance – this is the belief in the executive – would also have an effect on the decisions of Italian judges, making the Albania project practicable. President Ursula von der Leyen assured that the EU commission wants to proceed quickly on the new repatriation directive, the revision of the definition of a safe country and the possible use of hubs for repatriations in third countries.
The secretary of +Europa, Riccardo Magi, is critical, advising Giorgia Meloni to “give herself and all Italians a nice Christmas present: declare the experience of detention centers for migrants in foreign lands a failure, apologize for having almost a billion euros wasted, repatriate the Italian staff serving in the center and put an end to this national shame”.