Judge scraps detention of Egyptian asylum seeker

(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 4 - A judge in Catania has scrapped the detention of an Egyptian asylum seeker at a processing facility in Pozzallo, Sicily, even though he hails from a country listed as safe for repatriation by a new government decree, judicial sources said on Monday.
    In the decision, the judge did not validate the detention for the asylum seeker during the examination of his request for international protection ordered by the central police department of Ragusa based on the fact that the list of 'safe countries' defined by the decree "does not exempt the judge from the obligation to verify the compatibility" of such "designation with European Union law" and "in Egypt grave violation of human rights have been reported", the judge wrote.
    The migrant's attorney, Rosa Emanuela Lo Faro, said the decision "is the first of its kind since the decree on safe countries".
    The new measure approved on October 21, 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.
    The list aimed at accelerating procedures of expulsion was drafted after a Rome court on October 18 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 Egypt could be considered safe . (ANSA).