The Meloni government finds itself in a tight spot after a Rome court ruled that 12 migrants, offshored to Albania last week, must be returned to Italy. Attempting to salvage its migration deal with the Balkan country, the government rushed in a decree and altered the list of “safe countries,” hoping this would force magistrates to repatriate more migrants in the future and essentially prevent them from using their right to asylum.
The extreme anti-immigration policy is central to Meloni’s political platform, and her government is ready to spend millions of euros running detention centers in Albania. The initial offshoring of 16 migrants alone cost well over 200,000 euros. However, court decisions like the one from last week could turn the plan into a major flop—something many human rights groups had already predicted.
Read more: Asylum seekers to be deported from Italy to Albania, according to Meloni’s new migration agreement
Of the 16 migrants transferred to Albania, four were immediately returned to Italy: two turned out to be underage, and two fell into the category of “vulnerable population.” This was an early sign that Meloni’s system was not functioning as she had announced, and the court decision has created new problems for the premier. Unsurprisingly, Meloni and other government officials claimed the courts were overly politicized and attempted to undermine their authority.
However, the magistrates in the case were guided by EU legal advice, which questions the legality of Meloni’s offshoring plan and could erode its support among EU leaders, which has been, disturbingly, on the rise. Whether Meloni can push through legal hurdles standing in her way of preventing people from exercising basic human rights remains to be seen, but her efforts to block migrants from entering Italy continue to threaten both their lives and health.
