The European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled on Friday, August 1st, that countries may only be designated as “safe countries of origin” if all protected minorities within them are protected from persecution. The court’s pro-immigrant decision means for instance that any immigrant who calls themselves a homosexual cannot be deported back to their home country, if they are deemed to be in danger for their (supposed) sexual identity.
The ruling directly challenges national-level practices that have allowed certain member states to streamline asylum procedures based on lists of so-called safe countries. At the center of the case was the Italian government’s controversial Albania Model, a scheme under which asylum applications from certain immigrants are processed in facilities outside the European Union, namely in Albania.
The judgment stems from a legal challenge brought by two Bangladeshi nationals whose asylum claims were rejected under Italy’s new approach. The Italian court reviewing their cases referred the matter to the ECJ, questioning whether the framework complied with EU law and human rights obligations.
Italy has been fighting their battle alongside eight other countries, standing up against the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), which in their opinion interprets international asylum law too narrowly, limiting decision making in the member states, thus curtailing national sovereignty.
“Institutions that protect fundamental rights cannot bend to political cycles. If they do, we risk eroding the very stability they were built to ensure,” wrote Alain Berset, Secretary General of the ECtHR, as a response to the joint letter sent by the nine protesting countries. ItAlthough Brussels is not happy with Italy standing up for their national decisions, more and more countries are adopting their model of detaining immigrants and having their asylum process decided outside of the EU in a holding facility. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz praised the Albania model as “extraordinarily successful” and admitted to weighing the options of Germany to do the same.
With a clear indication of EU countries being fed up with illegal immigration and skyrocketing crime rates, the European court’s which hunt against these governments often results in “protecting the wrong people” according to the joint letter issued by the nine countries. The ECJ shutting down national level programs in the name of the progressive agenda is limiting the ability to make “political decisions in our own democracies,” says the letter.
