Italian judges challenge government's new migrant policy

Italian judges have challenged Rome's new migrant repatriation policy, arguing that declaring origin countries as "safe" as long as the general population lives safely would have meant Nazi Germany and fascist Italy were "safe".

Judges in Bologna asked the European Court of Justice at the end of last week to weigh in following changes to the law by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's government which have caused "interpretative conflicts", according to a court document seen by AFP on Tuesday.

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Far-right Meloni has been attempting to find a way to overcome legal opposition to her flagship migrant deal with Albania.

The first migrants were sent for processing in Italian-run centres in Albania earlier this month, but judges in Rome refused to sign off on their detention there, meaning the asylum seekers from Egypt and Bangladesh had to be brought to Italy instead.

The Rome judges said they were following a European Court of Justice ruling which declared so-called "safe" countries must be safe in their entirety, while Italy listed countries as safe with exceptions, such as the persecution of certain categories like LGBTQ people.

In response, the government swifty changed the law, scrapping the previous directives in a move criticised by human rights and migration experts.

On Friday, the Bologna judges called on the European court for clarification in the face of "clear divergences" and "interpretative conflicts" in the Italian legal system.

They also said that in their opinion it was not possible to declare whole countries safe where there is evidence of the persecution of minorities.

"The system of international protection is, by its nature, a legal system of guarantee for minorities exposed to risks from persecutory agents, whether state or otherwise", the judges wrote.

"It could be said, paradoxically, that Germany under the Nazi regime was an extremely safe country for the vast majority of the German population: with the exception of Jews, homosexuals, political opponents, people of Roma ethnicity and other minority groups, over 60 million Germans enjoyed an enviable level of safety", they said.

"The same can be said of Italy under the Fascist regime.

"If a country were to be considered safe when safety was guaranteed to the generality of the population, the legal notion of a safe country of origin could be applied to almost all countries in the world, and would therefore be a notion devoid of any legal consistency", they added.

Italy has long been on the front line of migrants crossing the Mediterranean from North Africa to Europe and Meloni was elected in 2022 on a pledge to stop the boats.

Her coalition has previously clashed with judges over attempts to limit the work done by charity organisations who rescue migrants at sea.

Across the European Union, individual member states are responsible for drawing up their own "safe" country lists. However, the EU intends eventually to agree on a bloc-wide list, officials say.