TIRANA (Reuters) – An Italian navy ship carrying 49 migrants picked up in international waters arrived in Albania on Tuesday, amid a new attempt by Italy to push ahead with a legally contested plan to relocate migrants to the neighbouring country.
The navy ship Cassiopea with the migrants reached the Albanian port of Shengjin early on Tuesday, according to a Reuters witness. They will be identified at a facility there and then moved to a detention centre some 20 km (12 miles)away.
The navy did not provide details on the migrants.
The Italian government of Giorgia Meloni has built two reception centres in Albania, the first such deal by a European Union nation to divert migrants to a non-EU country in a bid to limit sea arrivals to its territory.
But the facilities have been empty since November after judges in Rome questioned the validity of the relocation plan and ordered the first two batches of migrants previously detained in Albania to be moved back to Italy.
The controversy surrounding the plan, which Meloni sees as a cornerstone of her government’s aim to curb immigration, revolves around a ruling by the European Court of Justice last year, which was not related to Italy.
The Court said no nation of origin could be considered safe if even just a part of it was dangerous, undermining Rome’s idea of deporting migrants to Albania who hailed from a selected list of “safe” countries with a view to swiftly repatriate them.
Ilaria Salis, a European Parliament deputy from a left-wing Italian party, on Monday criticised the Italian government for forcibly transferring “innocent people fleeing war and misery” despite violations of international law and human rights.
The European court is set to review Italy’s plan in the coming weeks and clarify whether it is in compliance with EU law.
(Reporting by Fatos Bytyci; Writing by Angeliki Koutantou; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
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