Although the European Commission has given the green light to Italy’s Albania Protocol, the country’s pro-migrant judges seem to be increasingly on the warpath against its implementation, Italian outlet Il Giornale reports.
The news website obtained court documents regarding two cases of activist judges effectively blocking the deportation of illegal aliens who should have been removed from Italy years earlier, as they had no right to stay whatsoever.
A court order issued on April 19th by the Court of Appeal of Rome (according to the website, a usual suspect in such matters) prevented the expulsion of a migrant coming from an undisclosed country of origin. The man had entered Italy illegally on November 30, 2021. For a solid three-and-a-half years, he lived illegally on Italian soil, without a residence permit. On March 3rd of this year, the Naples Police ordered his expulsion, and he was first taken to the Potenza repatriation centre (CPR) and then, on April 11, to the CPR in Gjader in Albania.
Shortly after his arrival, the man decided to apply for international protection, which he had never done during all the years he lived in Italy illegally. The Rome Police Headquarters did not release him, however, arguing that his application is clearly an attempt at “delaying or preventing the execution of the expulsion.” But the migrant (or rather, his pro-migrant lawyers) appealed the decision, and the Court of Appeal of Rome sided with him, stating that “The repatriation procedures are not applicable to citizens seeking asylum.”
This case is not an exception, the paper stresses. Also recently, on April 22, the Court of Cassation ruled to stop the repatriation of an illegal immigrant after the ruling of the Territorial Court of Turin. The justification of the decision said the man had “not fully understood the document” with which he had been asked if he wanted to request international protection, a request that then only occurred at the time of the planned expulsion.
