Italian judge denies being ‘Marxist’ before slamming Albania’s immigration regime

The European Court of Justice ruled in October that migrants can only be repatriated if their home countries are considered safe across their entire 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 that the Italian government has decreed are safe enough for migrants to be sent back to.

It is the second time that the court in Rome has thrown a spanner in the offshore processing plan, which was the fruit of a bilateral agreement agreed between Ms Meloni, the Italian prime minister, and Edi Rama, her Albanian counterpart, a year ago .

The last time the court intervened was on October 18, with a ruling that resulted in the first group of migrants being taken from Albania and brought to Italy.

The government reacted furiously to the latest ruling, with ministers accusing the court of meddling 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 drawn up a list of 19 countries it says are safe enough for migrants to be sent back to, including Bangladesh and Egypt.

But the court in Rome said in a long explanatory note that EU law “prevails over national law when it is incompatible with it”.