From the EU Court of Justice comes a rejection of the Giorgia Meloni government line on detention centers for migrants in Albania. The judges of Luxembourg have given reason to the Italian magistrates stating that, if it is true that it is up to a state to designate a country of origin as sure, the designation must be able to “be subject to actual judicial control”.
The Community judges expressed themselves at first instance on the appeals presented by the Court of Rome, which so far has not recognized the legitimacy of the stops arranged against migrants rescued in the Mediterranean and transferred on the other side of the Adriatic because they are coming from countries deemed safe by the Italian government, in particular Egypt and Bangladesh.
The “surprise” of Palazzo Chigi
In a well -known Palazzo Chigi said that “surprises” the decision of the EU Court of Justice, with the Presidency of the Council which states that “once again the jurisdiction, this time European, claims spaces that do not compete for them, in the face of responsibilities that are political”. In doing so, continues the note, the Court “decides to deliver to any national judge the decision not on individual cases, but on the part of the migratory policy relating to the discipline of repatriations and expulsions of the irregular”.
The appeal
The affair was born from the implementation of the Italia-Albania protocol, signed in November 2023 and ratified in February 2024, which provides for the opening of stay centers for migrants in Albanian territory but under Italian jurisdiction. Two citizens of Bangladesh, rescued at sea, had been transferred to one of these centers and there they submitted an asylum application.
Europe has its list of safe countries for repatriations: what it means and what changes for migrants
Their request was examined according to the accelerated procedure provided for those who come from “safe countries”, and rejected with reference to an Italian legislative act of 2024 which included Bangladesh on this list. But the two migrants challenged the decision before the Court of Rome, which raised doubts about the lack of transparency of the act and asked the EU Court if it was compatible with European law.
The sentence
The EU Court of Justice has now established that the designation of a nation as a “country of safe origin” must be able to be contested effectively in the courts, even when it is formalized by law.
On the one hand, the magistrates of Luxembourg have confirmed that a citizen can see his demand for international protection rejected after an accelerated frontier procedure if his country of origin has been designated as “safe”, but at the same time they have specified that, despite the designation, it can be carried out through a legislative act, the latter in turn must be able to be subject to “actual jurisdictional control over the respect of the substantial criteria established by the law”. In short, the judges must be able to have a say.
The new pact for the EU kindergarten
The judges also clarified that “a Member State cannot designate a third country as a third country of origin that does not satisfy, for certain categories of people, the substantial conditions of such designation”. For example, a country can be safe for most of the population, not being at war or not having a dictatorship, but it may not be for a certain minority, such as the LGBT+ community or a religious minority, which could be subject to persecutions.
Easier to deport migrants to third countries: how the right of asylum will change
This applies at least to the entry into force of the new EU Regulation scheduled for June 12, 2026. The latter will allow Member States to introduce exceptions, but only for “categories of clearly identifiable people”.
