The Italy-Albania Protocol for processing asylum applications received a key endorsement from the European Union’s top legal advisor on Thursday, in a development that could bolster the Italian government’s migration strategy.
Advocate General (AG) Jean Richard de la Tour of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) stated in his opinion that EU law allows a member state to designate a third country as a safe country of origin, even if it may not be safe for certain vulnerable individuals.
The opinions of AGs are not binding for ECJ judges, but rulings are almost always based on them.
The opinion came in the context of an appeal by two Bangladeshi nationals who had applied for international protection after they had been transferred to a detention facility in Albania under the Italy-Albania Protocol. Their request was rejected, as their country of origin was considered safe.
The two Bangladeshi asylum seekers then challenged the rejection before the Rome District Court, which turned to the European Court of Justice, asking it to clarify how the safe country concept should be interpreted and what safeguards must accompany it.
Most importantly, as the Italian conservative outlet Il Giornale highlighted, the Advocate General of the EU Court believes that “European legislation does not prohibit a Member State from considering a third country as a ‘safe country of origin’, even if for some categories of people that country is not [safe],” directly countering the reasoning used by some Italian courts to block the Protocol’s application.
The AG added, however, that a third country can only be designated as safe if on the one hand, “The legal and political situation of the country in question reflects a democratic system that ensures the majority of the population stable protection against persecution or serious violations”; and, on the other, if the Member State “expressly excludes … vulnerable categories from the application of the status of safe country of origin” and “from the presumption of safety” that it entails.
Therefore, in the case of the Bangladeshi asylum seekers, if they can prove they are victims of discrimination in their home country, they have the right to challenge their transfer, otherwise they do not.
