Italy's right-wing government, led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, issued a decree Oct. 21 aimed at bypassing judicial obstacles to a controversial deal [10] with Albania to hold and process the claims of asylum-seekers intercepted at sea by Italian forces. The move comes three days after a special immigration court in Rome ruled [11] that the first group of 12 migrants sent to the repurposed military camp at Gjader, Albania, must be returned to Italy. The court found that the migrants' countries of origin—Egypt and Bangladesh—are "unsafe," making their offshore detention illegal. Meloni's decree asserts the executive alone has the power to make such determinations, setting the stage for a showdown between her government and the judiciary. (Politico [14], DW [15], BBC News [16], EuroNews [17], Jurist [18], CBC [19])
