Italy loses in the asylum dispute: empty camps in Albania cause excitement!

Italy loses in the asylum dispute: empty camps in Albania cause excitement!

The situation for refugees in Italy is coming to a head! After a devastating legal defeat for Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, migrants from a camp in Albania had to be brought back to Italy. On Friday, seven men from Bangladesh and Egypt, who were on the dangerous escape to Europe, were brought to the port city of Brindisi with a ship from the Italian coast guard. A court in Rome had decided that the internment of migrants in a camp outside the EU was not legal-a bitter setback for Meloni's controversial "Albania model".

The migrants had only been stopped near the island of Lampedusa last week before they were brought to Albania, where Italian officials were to decide on their asylum applications. But the judiciary has already stopped returning the rejected asylum applications in five cases - and that is not the first case! In the past few weeks, 16 similar decisions have been made. The two camps in Albania, which has been running Italy for a month, are now empty and raise questions about the future of the model. In the meantime, hundreds of refugees continue to come to Italy a week after having dared the dangerous crossing over the Mediterranean.

A dispute between the government and the judiciary

The case has developed into a violent conflict between Meloni's government and the judiciary. The dispute over the "Albania model" is now also treated by the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, while Italy's Colonel Court, the Court of Court in Rome, also advises. The uncertainty about the legal foundations and the future of the camps in Albania remains, while the European debate about safe countries of origin and asylum procedure is increasing in intensity. Meloni's original plan stipulated that up to 36,000 asylum applications are being processed annually in Albania - but the camps are currently empty, apart from the staff!