Italy vows to push ahead with Albania migrant centres despite court blow

By Angelo Amante

ROME (Reuters) - The Italian government vowed on Friday to push ahead with its contested plan to divert asylum-seekers abroad, saying it would appeal against a court's ruling that a group of migrants in reception centres in Albania should be taken to Italy.

The court potentially dealt a major blow to a flagship project of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to house migrants picked up at sea in facilities outside the EU.

The scheme, aimed at deterring migrants from making the sea crossing to Italy, has won plaudits from some European nations.

Meloni called a cabinet meeting for Monday to decide on the government's response to the legal ruling.

The court said the 12 migrants in the new Albanian facility of Gjader had to return to Italy because their countries of origin -- Egypt and Bangladesh -- could not be considered safe.

Speaking to reporters during a trip to Lebanon, Meloni called the decision "prejudiced" and said it was up to her government to determine which countries are safe and which are not, suggesting she would draft new rules to address the issue.

"Perhaps the government needs to clarify better what is meant by safe country," she said.

Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi told a news conference he was confident the decision would be overturned, adding that the government would take its appeal right up to the Supreme Court if necessary.

The migrants were taken to Albania earlier this week by an Italian navy ship. They originally numbered 16, but four have already been brought to Italy for health reasons or because they were minors.

Only migrants coming from a list of 22 nations Italy has classified as safe can be sent to Albania.

Egypt and Bangladesh are among these, but a recent ruling by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) on the matter made it impossible to hold them in Albania, the Rome court said.

The ECJ, in a case involving the Czech Republic, said a country outside the EU cannot be declared safe unless its entire territory is deemed free of danger.

"The detentions were not validated in application of the principles, binding on national courts ... set out in the recent ECJ ruling," court president Luciana Sangiovanni said, adding that the migrants had "a right to be brought to Italy".

The centre-left opposition said the ruling proved Meloni's scheme was against the law and should be scrapped.

The migrants will be taken to Italy by ship on Saturday, an Italian official said, declining to be named.

(Reporting by Angelo Amante and Marco Carta; additional reporting by Gianluca Semeraro; editing by Angus MacSwan and Gavin Jones)