The Italy-Albania Deal on Migrants Clashes with European Constraints and the Rule of Law

"Solving migration problems by restricting human rights is not a viable option," says Andrea De Petris, cep legal expert in Rome. On 4 October, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) had interpreted the EU directive regulating the notion of Safe Country of Origin to mean that to be considered ‘Safe’, a country must be so throughout its territory and without distinction for certain categories of people. This undermined Italy's plan to detain in Albanian centres asylum seekers from what the government considers to be Safe Countries, such as Egypt and Bangladesh, which are not according to EU law..

"The Italian government has issued a decree law with which it intends to define its own list of safe countries, even if these do not correspond to the parameters set out in European case law and regulations. As this is a provision of national law, the decree-law must also comply with European law," emphasises De Petris. Neither Italian legislative decrees nor - most likely - the EU law on migration adopted for June 2026 are likely to change this.

In view of the difficulties in implementing the rules created by the so-called Albania model, the cep legal expert believes that other EU member states should avoid imitating this model elsewhere, at least for the time being.