It was the third ruling against the policy of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing government by a court, which ruled against the transfers pending a review next month by an E.U. court.
Italian judges on Friday again denied the government’s request to hold asylum seekers in Albania while their cases are being processed, dealing another major setback to Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s anti-immigration policy.
It was the third ruling against the policy since Ms. Meloni’s right-wing government began carrying out the plan in October, which has become a flagship of her administration. The decision by a court of appeals in Rome denied the government’s request to keep the asylum seekers off shore pending a review of the practice in February by the Court of Justice of the European Union.
The decision concerned 43 migrants who were taken on Tuesday by the Italian Navy to centers in Albania after they were intercepted in the Mediterranean Sea.
A spokesman for the Interior Ministry said that in the wake of the judges’ ruling, the migrants would be taken to Italy. The Italian government did not immediately respond publicly to the ruling.
Italy began taking groups of migrants to Albania in October with the aim of housing them in Italian-built detention centers while their asylum claims were expedited. Under the program, only “non-vulnerable” men coming from what the government called “safe countries” were to be taken to the centers. Women and minors are allowed into Italy.
The Italian government has said its plan would deter undocumented immigrants from making the dangerous journey across the Mediterranean to reach Italian shores. But human rights groups condemned the plan, and the Italian political opposition denounced it as illegal and overly expensive.