Ministers decide safe countries - supreme court on Albania

(ANSA) - ROME, DEC 30 - It is up to the foreign minister and other competent ministers to decide what countries are safe for migrant repatriation, the supreme Court of Cassation said Monday in a preliminary ruling on a Rome court's immigration section nixing on October 18 the detention of the first batch of migrants to be taken to Albania under the government's controversial new policy of processing them in the Balkan country.
    The detention of the 12 migrants was quashed after the immigration section ruled that their countries of origin, Egypt and Bangladesh, were not wholly safe, inline with a previous European Curt of Justice sentence.
    Another immigration section later overturned the detention of a second batch of eight migrants taken to one of the two processing centres in Albania.
    The government has since drafted a list of safe countries including Egypt and Bangladesh and transferred jurisdiction in the cases to appeals courts.
    Premier Giorgia Meloni said last week that the Albania scheme would get back up and running in the New Year with Navy ship Lybra picking up more migrants in a policy that has garnered interest in the EU and been praised by Elon Musk, a friend of Meloni's, among others.
    photo: Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani announcing resumption of scheme on a pre-Xmas visit to Kosovo (ANSA).