Italian authorities brought 43 asylum seekers back to the country from offshore asylum processing centers in Albania on Friday, following a ruling by the Court of Appeal of Rome.

The Court of Appeal has suspended the detention of 43 asylum seekers in Albania, awaiting a ruling from the European Court of Justice (ECJ) following a reference for an opinion. In the preliminary reference, the ECJ is tasked with addressing the crucial question: can a state be deemed safe if “the conditions for its designation are not met for certain categories of individuals”? The ECJ is set to decide on the issue on February 25.

This marks the third time the courts have halted the expulsions of asylum seekers. The first attempt occurred in October 2024, when the Magistrates refused to validate the detention of 12 migrants, as countries such as Egypt and Bangladesh were not considered “safe.” Similarly, the second attempt was blocked by the immigration section of the Capitoline Court, which suspended its judgment concerning 7 migrants and referred the matter to the ECJ for an opinion.

In response to these previous legal challenges, the government introduced the Flow Degree, transferring the competence of deciding the validity of the detention of migrants to the Court of Appeal. Now, the Court of Appeal’s decision to block the expulsion of asylum seekers from Albania signifies the failure of the Italy-Albania Migration Protocol. The Protocol, signed in November 2023 and ratified in February 2024, requires Albanian authorities to host a maximum of 3000 migrants in specified facilities “for the sole purpose of carrying out the border or repatriation procedures provided for by Italian”.