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.
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