(Adnkronos) – The cabinet has approved a list of 19 countries which it deems safe for illegal immigrants to be returned to. The move comes after a Rome court ruled last week that the first 12 migrants who arrived at the Italian government’s newly opened processing centres in Albania must be sent to Italy as their homelands of Bangladesh and Egypt were unsafe for returns.
The list of ‘safe’ countries approved by the cabinet late on Monday are: Albania, Algeria, Bangladesh, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Capo Verde, Egypt, Gambia, Georgia, Ghana, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Morocco, Montenegro, Peru, Senegal, Serbia, Sri Lanka and Tunisia.
Under an emergency decree issued by the cabinet earlier on Monday, a list of safe countries can be updated every six months and a court of appeal can reconsider rulings ordering the transfer of asylum seekers to Italy.
“We will continue to work tirelessly to defend our borders,” hard-right premier Giorgia Melon said.
According to Italian law, every migrant’s detention must be reviewed by special courts. Friday’s ruling in Rome upheld a 4 October European Court of Justice decision that for country to be considered safe it must be so in every region and for every person – which the court said Egypt and Bangladesh are not.
The court ruling challenged the Italian government’s plan to outsource migrant processing and is an early obstacle for the government’s contentious five-year deal with Albania for the Balkan country to host up to 3,000 male migrants a month who are rescued by Italian coast guard in international waters.
Under the controversial deal criticised by rights groups, migrants who are transferred to the two processing camps in Albania – which are funded and run by Italy – will be vetted there for possible asylum or repatriated.
Speaking to reporters after Friday’s court ruling, Meloni said she believed it was for the government, not magistrates, to establish which countries can be deemed safe.
Considering countries such as Bangladesh and Egypt to be unsafe means that virtually all migrants would be barred from the 670 million euro Albania programme, making it unworkable, according to the government.
