European Court of Justice In October, he ruled that migrants could only be repatriated if their home country was deemed safe across the region and for all kinds of people, from LGBTQ minorities to political dissidents.

Such strict criteria appear to exclude countries such as Egypt, Bangladesh and Tunisia that the Italian government has judged to be safe enough. immigrants to be sent back to the address.

This is the second time the Rome court has intervened in the offshore processing plan, which is the fruit of a bilateral agreement reached between the Italian prime minister Meloni and his Albanian counterpart Edi Rama a year ago.

The last intervention of the court on October 18 was a decision that resulted in the first group of immigrants being taken from Albania and brought to Italy.

The government reacted strongly to the latest ruling, with ministers accusing the court of intervening in matters beyond its jurisdiction.

They argued that judges should have no role in deciding which countries it is safe for immigrants to return to.

The government has compiled a list of 19 countries, including Bangladesh and Egypt, that it says are safe enough for migrants to be sent back to.

But the Rome court said in a lengthy explanatory note that European Union law “prevails where it is incompatible with national law.”