Italy - February 2024

On 15 February, the Senate approved a deal between Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, which will lead to the transfer of asylum seekers rescued at sea by Italian authorities to Italian-funded detention centers in Albania. Women, children and individuals deemed “vulnerable” will be exempt from the centers, sparking concerns about potential family separations. Experts and rights groups say the deal breaches international law, has legal ambiguities and will likely impact protection of rights. On 22 February, the deal was ratified by the Albanian parliament. The deal was praised by PM Meloni as a show of European solidarity and was backed by the European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen. The center-left opposition has criticized the deal as a costly propaganda move ahead of the European Parliament elections and a “shameful attempt” to turn Albania into Italy's version of "Guantanamo." While the Albanian Constitutional Court said Albanian law would apply in the centers, PM Meloni stated they would fall under Italian jurisdiction.The Council of Europe's Commissioner for Human Rights warned the deal “will likely undermine crucial human rights safeguards.”

Sources: Reporter.al, Euronews, Euronews Albania, Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata , Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Verfassungsblog, International IDEA

Update: Migrant detention centers in Albania, set up in October to review asylum applications for people rescued or stopped at sea by Italian ships, have sent all migrants back to Italy. The centers were designed to decide if migrants could be sent back to their countries of origin or returned to Italy for further legal processing. However, a Rome Court ruled these migrants cannot be repatriated due to unsafe countries of origin (Bangladesh and Egypt). In an emergency meeting, the Italian government passed a decree to overcome the ruling, allowing the government to amend the list of safe countries, but in November, the Court again ordered the migrants’ return to Italy. This sparked a dispute between the government and the judiciary over the definition of “safe countries” and the precedence of EU law. The government designated certain countries as safe, even though some regions within them remain unsafe. The Court’s decision aligned with a prior European Court of Justice ruling, which states a country cannot be deemed safe if it has unsafe regions.  

Sources: Ditar, il Manifesto, Politico, European Court of Justice, Euronews (1), Euronews (2), The Guardian (1), The Guardian (2)  

The Supreme Court of Cassation, the country’s top court, ruled that sending sea migrants back to Libya is illegal. The Court upheld the conviction of the captain of an Italian boat, who in 2018 rescued 101 migrants, including pregnant women and children and returned them to Libya. The captain was sentenced to one year in prison for abandoning minors or incapacitated persons, and for arbitrary disembarkation and abandonment of individuals. However, he is unlikely to serve jail time, as in the Italian legal system, sentences under four years are typically not served behind bars. The route from Libya to Italy is among the most frequented sea migration paths. Rights groups hailed the ruling as a legal precedent affirming their assertion that Libya is not a safe country, and that cooperating with Libya contradicts the obligation to transport rescued individuals to a secure location.

Sources: Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata, Africa News, Reuters