Cabinet OKs migrant decree with list of 'safe countries'

(ANSA) - ROME, OCT 22 - The government has approved a new decree on migration defining a list of safe countries for repatriation.
    The new measure, aimed at solving the legal issue that led a Rome court to refuse to validate the detention of 12 migrants at a newly opened Italian-run centre in Gjader, Albania, includes a list of safe countries as part of primary legislation rather than as an inter-ministerial decree, "which a judge cannot fail to apply", Justice Minister Carlo Nordio said late Monday.
    in particular, a judge will not be able to disapply the law anymore, "but can appeal to the Constitutional court if he or she deems it unconconstitutional", Nordio told a press conference after the cabinet meeting.
    The foreign ministry, in agreement with the interior ministry, previously drafted an annual list of countries considered safe for repatriation as part of a ministerial measure, or secondary legislation.
    The decree lists "19 safe countries out of the original 22", excluding Cameroon, Colombia and Nigeria", Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said after the cabinet meeting.
    The list is aimed at accelerating procedures of expulsion and ensuring that "a request for protection is not used to avoid the expulsion system", said Piantedosi.
    The Rome court last week gave the thumbs down to the first group of migrants being held at one of the centres Italy has set up on Albanian territory, based on a controversial agreement with Tirana, on the grounds that their countries of provenance, Bangladesh and Egypt, could not be considered wholly safe.
    The court's decision was based on an October 4 sentence of the European Court of Justice that not all the territory of several countries including Bangladesh and Egypt could be considered safe . (ANSA).