The Advocate General of the EU Court of Justice has ruled that offshore migrant processing centres are compatible with EU law in principle. However, they added that the Italy-Albania facilities as currently structured may not fully meet the bloc’s asylum guarantees.
Advocate General Laila Medina issued an opinion on Thursday stating that EU member states may operate migrant centres outside the bloc’s borders, as Italy does in Albania, but remain fully bound by EU law on asylum rights. The opinion makes clear that the threshold is not lowered simply because the facility is located abroad: protections must be guaranteed “to a level equivalent to that applicable on national territory.”
Examining the Italy-Albania protocol and its implementing legislation, Medina found that the framework does not appear to contain sufficiently clear and precise rules to guarantee the rights of the defence, the right to respect for private and family life, or the right to immediate release at the end of the detention validation period. As a result, the protocol and national legislation are “likely to affect or alter the minimum procedural guarantees provided for by EU law.” National courts must ensure, the opinion states, both that EU detention standards have been met and that the right to effective judicial protection has been guaranteed.
The case concerns two migrants who had been detained in Italy under expulsion orders before being transferred to one of the Albanian centres. Although Advocate General opinions are not binding, the Court of Justice follows them in the great majority of cases.
Background
Italy’s Albania centres have been operational in theory for over a year but have been repeatedly hampered by domestic judicial challenges. A significant obstacle was cleared last year when EU member states agreed reforms complementing the 2024 Pact on Migration and Asylum, which expanded deportation measures and explicitly permitted the creation of offshore return hubs for rejected asylum seekers, subject to specific security criteria.
Thursday’s opinion does not strike down the Albania model but sets conditions it must meet — potentially requiring legislative changes to the protocol before the scheme can operate on the scale the Italian government envisages.
