Italy takes back 43 migrants following court ruling

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00:0043 migrants arrived from Albania to the port of Bari.

00:03It's yet another blow for Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Maloney

00:06and her crackdown on what she considers illegal migration.

00:10The asylum seekers from Bangladesh, Egypt, the Gambia and the Ivory Coast

00:14were intercepted in the Mediterranean Sea by Italian authorities last week.

00:18They were sent straight to the Balkan country for processing.

00:22It's part of a controversial deal between the two countries signed last year

00:26when Albania agreed to take up to 3,000 male migrants per month from Italy,

00:30which is usually the first European country people reach when they cross the Mediterranean.

00:37I want to once again thank Prime Minister Rama

00:41and all the Albanian people for offering their help to Italy

00:45for entering into an agreement with us that I see as a very European one.

00:56We have a chance to be more useful to Italy two or three times.

01:02So let's take this opportunity and do it with heart.

01:10However, on Friday an appeals court in Rome refused to approve the government's request

01:15to hold the men in Albania while their cases are being processed.

01:18This led to their transfer to Italy.

01:20It's the third failed attempt by Maloney's government to process migrants in the Balkan

01:25country after the courts pushed back twice last autumn.

01:28The case was referred to the European Court of Justice,

01:31which is expected to issue a ruling on the two previous cases on the 25th of February.

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