The fate of Italian Prime Minsiter Giorgia Meloni’s central immigration policy of sending illegal boat migrants to Albanian detention centres is likely on course to be put in the hands of European Union judges in Luxembourg after Italian magistrates cited EU rulings to justify sending another round of illegals back from Albania to Italy this week.
The Court of Rome has thrown Prime Minister Meloni’s Albania plan into doubt as they ordered the return of seven Bangladeshi and Egyptian illegals who were escorted by the Italian Navy by sea to an asylum processing centre in Gjdaer, Albania last Friday, reported broadcaster Rai Italia.
The Italian magistrates claimed that Egypt and Bangladesh do not fall under the description of “safe countries” in a recent ruling by the Luxembourg City-based European Court of Justice (ECJ), which said that countries could only be deemed safe for the return of migrants if their entire territory is free of political violence, torture, and does not impose the death penalty, suggesting, perhaps, that even the United States would not qualify as a safe country for migrant returns.
Last month, following the return of a separate group of Bangladeshi and Egyptian illegals from Albania, Meloni’s government approved a decree law listing 19 nations, including Bangladesh and Egypt, as “safe” for the return of rejected asylum seekers. The conservative government in Rome argued that the codification of a formal list by the people’s representatives should outweigh the ruling of the ECJ, and therefore, Italian judges should defer to the Italian government.
Instead, the Court of Rome decided to refer the case with its own government to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg for clarification.
The ultimate outcome of the dispute could have widespread consequences, with fellow EU member states and even EU chief Ursula von der Leyen saying that they are considering the ‘Meloni Model’ as a potential framework for their issues with illegal immigration.
Meanwhile, the move by the Court of Rome to send illegals back to Italy from Albania has also sparked a debate over Elon Musk and his social media platform X.
Following the return of the illegal aliens to Italy, the Tesla chief remarked on Monday: “These judges need to go.”
In response, neo-liberal politicians in Italy have accused Musk of supposedly interfering with democracy, a charge that has intensified across Europe following the X owner’s campaign on behalf of former President Donald Trump in the recent U.S. election.
Ernesto Carbone, a member of the Superior Council of the Judiciary (CSM), a constitutional body tasked with guaranteeing the independence of the judiciary from the other branches of the Italian government, said: “Elon Musk’s words against Italian judges are dangerous words. These new oligarchs who exploit new worlds (such as space, the ether, social media and new technologies) to control world politics are a danger to democracy… All this is unacceptable but, above all, dangerous”.
“Italy and Europe do not take lessons in democracy from anyone, much less from Elon Musk, whose sole purpose is to undermine our fundamental values, the rule of law, the most basic principles of our democracies, starting with the independence of the judiciary… He should go build his regimes in space,” added Sandro Gozi, a member of the European Parliament in French President Emmanuel Macron’s Renew Europe cohort.
However, the sentiments expressed by the X boss were seconded by Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, who said: “Elon Musk is right. On December 20, I could receive a 6-year prison sentence for having blocked, as Minister of the Interior, the landings of illegal immigrants. Seen from abroad, all this seems even more incredible.”
The populist League leader said the Court of Rome’s ruling represented “another political sentence not against the government but against Italians and their safety.”
“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.”
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