Meloni seeks to save Albanian migrant deal amid spat with judges

ROME: Italy´s hard-right government said it would pass a new law on Monday to overcome legal opposition to a migrant deal with Albania, as Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni accused judges of political bias.

A decree, to be adopted at a cabinet meeting on Monday, would enshrine in law the government´s definition of 22 countries as “safe”, which would mean Rome can fast-track applications from asylum seekers from those countries. The move follows a ruling by Italian judges on Friday against the detention of the first migrants sent for processing in Italian-run centres in Albania.

Rome has said that other European Union countries are interested in its flagship policy as a way of processing asylum requests in countries outside the bloc. But 12 Bangladesh and Egyptian migrants sent to Albania last week had to leave again after the judges´ ruling and were taken to Italy.

The judges pointed to a recent European Court of Justice ruling which stipulates that EU states can only designate whole countries as safe, not parts. Some nations on Italy´s list include areas which are not considered safe.

As a general rule, EU law takes precedence over conflicting national laws. Meloni on Friday slammed the ruling as “prejudiced” and said she had called a cabinet meeting Monday “to approve laws to overcome this obstacle, because I don´t think it´s up to the judges to say which countries are safe, but the government.”

The cabinet decree would enter into force immediately, before being made law by parliament, where the government has a majority. The law is expected to state that all parts of the 22 countries designed safe are safe for all categories of people, disregarding caveats in the government´s current directives. Immigration lawyer Guido Savio told AFP the abrupt change would likely lead to new legal challenges.