The issue of listing which countries
are safe to repatriate migrants is crucial to migration
policies, Premier Giorgia Meloni said in joint statements with
visiting Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson ahead of an
end-May-start-of-June European Court of Justice ruling on an
issue that has so far stymied Italy's innovative but
controversial protocol with Albania to process migrants in the
non-EU country.
The hearing before the European Union's Court of Justice on
the Italy-Albania protocol began yesterday. The Luxembourg
judges were to hear preliminary appeals filed by the Tribunal of
Rome, which has yet to recognise the legitimacy of arrests
ordered against migrants rescued in the Mediterranean and
transferred to the other side of the Adriatic because they come
from countries considered safe by the Italian government, namely
Egypt and Bangladesh.
"The European Commission accepts that Directive 2013/32" on
asylum procedures "allows Member States to designate countries
of origin as safe" while also "providing for exceptions for
categories of people," said the EU's Commission lawyer Flavia
Tomat during the hearing on the Italy-Albania protocol at the EU
Court of Justice. Brussels emphasised that the rules "do not
prevent the designation of a country of origin as safe when
safety is not guaranteed" as a whole "for certain categories of
people," she explained, adding that these groups must in any
case "be clearly identifiable."
On April 10, the Advocate General of the European Court of
Justice will present his conclusions on the joint cases
involving the Italy-Albania protocol and the definition of safe
countries of origin. The ruling is thus expected between the end
of May and the beginning of June.
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