People disembark from the Italian navy ship Libra that arrived in Albania as part of a deal with Italy to process thousands of asylum-seekers stopped near Italian waters, in Shengjin, Albania, on Oct. 16, 2024. Florion Goga/Reuters
The European Union’s top court ruled on Friday that Italy can fast-track the deportation of illegal immigrants to countries it designates as safe, but said those designations must be subject to judicial scrutiny to ensure asylum decisions can be challenged.
The ruling from the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) came in response to a case involving two Bangladeshi nationals who were rescued at sea by Italian authorities last year. Italy rejected their asylum applications, citing Bangladesh’s designation as a safe country of origin under a legislative act passed by the Italian government in October 2024.
