Italian judge denies being ‘a Marxist’ before dealing blow to Albanian migrant scheme

The European Court of Justice ruled in October that migrants can only be repatriated if their home country is considered safe throughout their territory and for all types of people, from LGBTQ minorities to political opponents.

Such strict criteria appear to exclude countries such as Egypt, Bangladesh and Tunisia which the Italian government has decided are safe enough migrants to be returned.

This is the second time that the court in Rome has thrown a spanner in the works in the offshore processing plan, which was the result of a bilateral agreement agreed a year ago between Ms Meloni, the Italian Prime Minister, and Edi Rama, her Albanian counterpart .

The last time the court intervened was on October 18, with a ruling that led to the first batch of migrants being removed from Albania and taken to Italy.

The government reacted furiously to the latest ruling, with ministers accusing the court of interfering in matters outside its jurisdiction.

They argued that judges should have no role in deciding which countries are safe for migrants to return to.

The government has compiled a list of 19 countries it believes are safe enough to send migrants back to, including Bangladesh and Egypt.

But the court in Rome said in a lengthy statement that European Union law “prevails over national law where it is incompatible with it.”