Following a court judgment in Rome, an Italian navy ship returned the first 12 refugees from newly established asylum processing centers in Albania to Italy on Saturday.
The decision marks a significant setback in the administration’s ambition to outsource some of its migrant processing to Albania.
The 12 were among the first 16 migrants to be taken to the two camps, which opened last week under a five-year agreement to accommodate 3,000 migrants each month picked up by the Italian coast guard and vetted for possible asylum in Italy or return to their home countries.
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However, under Italian law, each migrant’s detention must now be reviewed by special migration courts in Italy.
On Friday, a court in Rome rejected the detention of the 12, arguing that they cannot be returned to their countries of origin – Bangladesh and Egypt – because the court does not consider the countries to be safe enough.
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The four other migrants already had been…