Navy ship to resume Albania-deal operations next week

(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 2 - The Libra, the Italian Navy ship tasked with operations regarding the government's controversial agreement to run migrant-centres on Albanian territory, will return to the central Mediterranean next week, sources said on Saturday, confirming newspaper reports.
    The ship had been docked in Messina after a Rome court failed to validate the detention of 12 migrants who were part of the first group to be taken to Albania under the deal.
    The court rejected the migrants' detention at a centre in Gjader on the grounds that their countries of provenance, Bangladesh and Egypt, could not be considered safe.
    As a result the 12 migrants had to be taken to Italy.
    The government has since passed a measure setting a list of 19 safe countries for repatriation, including Bangladesh and Egypt, in order to overcome the legal hurdle to the agreement being applied.
    The Libra will return to the central Mediterranean on Monday or Tuesday and monitor the flow of migrants, take any that get picked up on board and organise a possible new transfer to the Shengjin hotspot in Albania, the sources said. (ANSA).