Blow to Italy's PM Meloni as court blocks plan to detain migrants in Albania

An Italian court has ruled against its government's attempt to send a dozen migrants to newly opened centres in Albania.

The 12 people were part of a first group of 16 due to go to the two sites, which opened last week.

Under the plans, the centres had been expected to host up to 3,000 migrants picked up by the Italian coastguard per month.

As part of the five-year deal between Italy and Albania, the migrants would then be processed for possible asylum in Italy or be sent back to their home nations.

However, each migrant's detention must be reviewed by special migration courts in Italy under Italian law. On Friday, a court in Rome rejected the detention of 12 of the migrants and said they had a right to be brought to Italy.

The court said they could not be returned to their countries of origin, Bangladesh and Egypt, because the judges did not deem the countries to be safe enough.

The four other migrants would also not enter the centres after staff deemed them to be vulnerable following health screenings.

The verdict is a blow to Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's policy, which she previously hailed as a new "model" to handle illegal migration.

The anti-migration League party, part of Ms Meloni's coalition government, criticised the court's decision, accusing its judges of being left-wing activists.

The Italian centre-left opposition has hit out at the plans for being too expensive, complicated and damaging to migrants' rights.

The 16 migrants, 10 Bangladeshis and six Egyptians, must now all be transferred to Italy.

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Ms Meloni criticised the ruling and said that deeming countries such as Bangladesh and Egypt unsafe meant that virtually all migrants would be barred from the Albania programme.

Her government plans to appeal against the ruling.

The centres, run by Italian officials with Albanian guards, are expected to cost Italy €670m (£560m) over five years.

The agreement has been endorsed by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as an example of "out-of-box thinking" in tackling the issue of migration.

(c) Sky News 2024: Blow to Italy's PM Meloni as court blocks plan to detain migrants in Albania