Italy’s plan to screen migrants in Albania hits another snag
LA TimesMigrants disembark from the Italian navy ship Libra at the port of Shengjin in northwestern Albania on Friday. Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni’s program to screen asylum seekers outside of European Union borders in Albania hit another snag on Monday when a court in Rome refused to rule on a formal request to detain seven migrants transferred to the Balkan nation last week. It is a repeat of what happened with the first 12 migrants in the program, who also were returned to Italy by another court decision last month shortly after the opening of two migrant screening centers in Albania operated by Italy. In the latest decision, the court specified that it was seeking clarification on which countries are designated as safe “only to identify which procedure to apply.” “The exclusion of a state from the list of safe countries of origin does not prevent the repatriation and/or expulsion of those migrants whose asylum applications been rejected,’’ the court said in its ruling. Under a five-year deal, Albania would allow Italy to run two migrant centers on its territory with the capacity to screen up to 3,000 migrants a month to be vetted for asylum or returned to their home countries.