Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni’s program to screen asylum seekers outside of the European Union borders in Albania has hit another snag.

A Rome court on Monday asked EU judges to weigh in on the detention of sea migrants in Albania, again frustrating the Italian right-wing government's efforts to pursue its flagship plan to crackdown on irregular arrivals.

The Italian government is asserting the right to return people to these countries, and this forms the base of their justification for the controversial Albania scheme. In short, people from these ‘safe’ countries are likely to have their asylum claims rejected,

One of the eight migrants brought for processing in an Albanian center after being intercepted in international waters has returned to Italy after being deemed “vulnerable.”

SHENGJIN, Albania (AP) — An Italian navy ship docked Friday at the Albanian port of Shengjin with eight migrants who will be processed there after they were intercepted in international waters, a month after another group was turned away for failing the vetting process.

A court in Rome dealt a further blow to Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni’s plans to resettle some asylum seekers in Albania, saying a second batch of migrants should return to Italy.

The ship, expected to arrive at the port of Shengjin on Thursday morning, left Lampedusa with only eight asylum seekers after judges in Catania and Rome rejected the Meloni government's decree on 'safe countries' last Monday.

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