Italy Can Fast-Track Deportation of Illegal Immigrants but Must Allow Legal Review: EU Court

The decision adds pressure on Italy’s Albania relocation scheme ahead of EU migration pact rollout.

People disembark from the Italian navy ship Libra that arrived in Albania as part of a deal with Italy to process thousands of asylum-seekers stopped near Italian waters, in Shengjin, Albania, on Oct. 16, 2024. Florion Goga/Reuters

The European Union’s top court ruled on Friday that Italy can fast-track the deportation of illegal immigrants to countries it designates as safe, but said those designations must be subject to judicial scrutiny to ensure asylum decisions can be challenged.

The ruling from the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) came in response to a case involving two Bangladeshi nationals who were rescued at sea by Italian authorities last year. Italy rejected their asylum applications, citing Bangladesh’s designation as a safe country of origin under a legislative act passed by the Italian government in October 2024.

The two men were later transferred to a detention facility in Albania under a 2023 bilateral agreement between Rome and Tirana. The deal allows up to 3,000 migrants intercepted at sea each month to be relocated to Albania, where their asylum claims are processed by Italian officials. Those not granted protection may be returned to their countries of origin.

The fast-track system, along with the relocation of asylum seekers to Albania, was introduced by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government as part of broader efforts to curb illegal immigration.

Meloni considers the protocol central to her administration’s immigration policy. A previous CJEU ruling in an unrelated case had already limited how countries could interpret the “safe country” concept, ruling that a nation cannot be considered safe if even part of its territory poses danger to certain individuals.

In the current case, the two Bangladeshi men appealed to a Rome court, which asked the CJEU to clarify how countries are designated safe and what legal checks are required.

The referring court said Italy’s 2024 law doesn’t explain how it chose which countries are safe, making it hard for those seeking asylum or judges to question those decisions.

The CJEU said that the information used to decide whether a country is safe must be available to both asylum seekers and judges, so they can fully review the decision. Courts can also use their own reliable sources, as long as both sides are allowed to respond.

Responding to the CJEU ruling on X, Meloni said it weakens policies aimed at countering mass illegal immigration and defending national borders.

“The decision of the EU Court of Justice regarding the designation of safe countries of origin for illegal migrants is surprising,” she said. “Once again, the judiciary, this time at the European level, claims authority over areas that do not belong to it, in the face of responsibilities that are political in nature.”

Meloni said that the ruling prioritizes the decisions made by national judges over decisions made by parliament.

“Thus, for example, when it comes to identifying so-called safe countries, it gives precedence to the decision of the national judge—even if based on private sources—over the outcome of complex investigations carried out by the competent ministries and evaluated by the sovereign Parliament,” she said.

Ilaria Salis, a European Parliament deputy from Italy’s Greens and Left Alliance party, criticized the Meloni government on Friday.

“There was no need for a ruling from the European Court to understand that the Meloni government’s colonial-style Albanian venture is an abuse of power,” she said.

She said the government overstepped its powers in what she described as a “stubborn crusade” against judicial authority.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni speaks in London on March 2, 2025. Ben Whitley/Getty Images

EU Migration Pact

The CJEU ruling was issued just months before the EU’s Pact on Migration and Asylum comes into full effect. It will allow member states to strike agreements with non-EU states to handle asylum claims extraterritorially, potentially setting up processing centers in North Africa or beyond.

“It is noteworthy that this is happening just a few months before the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum comes into force, a Pact that introduces stricter rules, including with regard to the criteria for identifying such countries,” Meloni said. “For the ten months remaining before the European Pact becomes operational, the Italian government will continue to seek every possible solution, technical or regulatory, to protect the safety of its citizens.”

In April, the EU announced that nationals from seven countries, including Bangladesh, Colombia, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, India, and Kosovo, are unlikely to gain asylum status in Europe, as these countries have been designated “safe third countries.”

Illegal immigrants from those countries will be fast-tracked for quicker deportation, the EU said.

Since the start of 2025, 36,557 illegal immigrants have entered Italy, up from 33,781 during the same period last year, but down from 89,165 in 2023, according to Italy’s Interior Ministry.

Most of the arrivals in 2025 have been from Bangladesh, Eritrea, Egypt, Pakistan, and Ethiopia.