Even if Egypt is on the list of safe countries, this "does not exempt the judge from the obligation to verify the compatibility" of this "designation with European Union law". This was written by the Court of Catania in the provision with which it did not validate the detention ordered by the police chief of Ragusa of a migrant who arrived from Egypt, who in Pozzallo requested refugee status. Again according to the Court, "in Egypt there are serious violations of human rights that affect the freedoms of a democratic system".
This is the "first ruling of this type after the decree law on safe countries", commented the migrant's lawyer, Rosa Emanuela Lo Faro. In the provision, the judge declares "the question of constitutional legitimacy raised by the protection seeker to be irrelevant" and "does not validate the provision of the Police Chief of Ragusa with which the detention order was issued" of the migrant. The decision in question is by the president of the Immigration section of the Court of Catania, Massimo Escher, who underlines the need, in evaluating the detention, to examine the qualification given to Egypt, with the decree law of 23 October 2024, which includes it "in a list that does not provide for any exception, neither for territorial areas nor for personal characteristics".
But for the Court this "qualification does not exempt the judge from the obligation to verify the compatibility of the designation with European Union law, an obligation clearly and unreservedly affirmed by the European Court of Justice in the judgment of the Grand Chamber of 4 October 2024". Requirements that Egypt would not have, presenting instead, Escher states, "serious violations of human rights".
After the decision of the Catania judge, the comment of the deputy prime minister and minister Matteo Salvini was not long in coming, according to whom «due to some communist judges who do not apply the laws, the unsafe country is now Italy. But we do not give up».
(Unioneonline/vf)