Italy vows to push ahead with dormant migrant vetting centers in Albania

MILAN — Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni’s government vowed on Monday to open controversial migrant processing centers in Albania that have remained dormant after Italian courts refused to validate the transfer of the first two groups of migrants.

Government ministers “repeated the firm intention to continue to work … on so-called ‘innovative solutions’ to the migration phenomenon,’’ Meloni’s office said in a statement. It gave no timeline.

The statement cited a court ruling last week by Italy's highest court that said Italian judges could not substitute for government policy on deciding which countries are safe for repatriation of migrants whose asylum requests are rejected.

The decision does allow lower courts to make such determinations on a case-by-case basis, short of setting overall policy.

Meloni told reporters in Finland over the weekend that the high court ruling “had substantially proved the Italian government was correct.”

Italy has earmarked 650 million euros ($675 million) to run the centers over five years. The centers opened in October ready to accept up to 3,000 male migrants a month picked up by the Italian coast guard in international waters.

But two groups of migrants who were brought to Albania by an Italian coast guard ship were instead routed back to Italy after courts refused to validate their transfer.

The Italian courts both asked the European Court of Justice to determine a list of safe countries for repatriation. The timing of the European court decision was not clear, but was expected to take months.

The statement from Meloni's office said the plan to process migrants outside EU borders in Albania had received strong backing from other leaders on the sidelines of last week's EU summit in Brussels.

A hard-line approach to migration got another boost last week when Italian Vice Premier Matteo Salvini was acquitted of a charge of illegally detaining migrants whom he blocked from disembarking in Italy while he was interior minister in August 2019.