New stop to the detention of migrants in Albania. After the first 16 were returned last October, the 7 taken last Friday to the Gjader center will also be freed in the next few hours and transferred to Italy , arriving in Brindisi.
The decision was made by the immigration section of the Rome court, which referred the case to the European Court of Justice, while simultaneously suspending the validation of the detention in the Albanian center. The decision concerns seven Egyptian and Bangladeshi migrants taken last Friday by the Navy ship Libra to the Italian detention center for the repatriation of Gjader to Albania.
"Due to the preliminary reference, the judges did not rule on the requests for validation - we read in a note from the Court - but they necessarily had to suspend the related proceedings pending the decision of the Court of Justice . The suspension of the proceedings does not stop the expiry of the legal term of forty-eight hours of effectiveness of the detentions ordered by the Police Headquarters".
The judges underline that the criteria for the designation of a State as a safe country of origin are «established by European Union law , therefore the judge has the duty to verify the correct application of Union law which, notoriously, prevails over national law».
There are four questions formulated to the EU Court: "The preliminary reference - as stated in the note of the Court - was chosen as the most suitable instrument to clarify the various profiles of dubious compatibility with the supranational discipline that emerged following the decree on safe countries (approved in recent days by the Meloni government, ed.). This choice was preferred to a decision of autonomous confirmation by the Court of its own interpretation, for the reasons widely highlighted in the preliminary reference orders".
While waiting for the EU Court to express its opinion, the measure to detain the migrants is annulled and all seven will have to return to Italy. Just like the first sixteen.
" Another political sentence not against the government, but against Italians and their security. The government and Parliament have the right to react to protect citizens, and they will do so. Provided that some other magistrate, in the meantime, does not sentence me to six years in prison for having defended the borders", is the reaction of Matteo Salvini .
(Unioneonline/L)