The Catania court ordered the immediate release of a Tunisian placed in a detention center for migrants in Sicily. The judiciary contests the legitimacy of the measures taken by the Italian government for migrants from safe countries, such as Tunisia.
This decision sounds like a snub for the turn of the screw decreed by Giorgia Meloni against illegal immigration.
The irregular migrant arrived in Lampedusa on September 20. And he had, despite himself, inaugurated the new Sicilian administrative detention center for migrants, opened a week ago. A detention could last four weeks and is based on a presumption of rapid repatriation since Italy and Tunisia have an agreement on expulsions.
But for the first time, a judge declared the Italian decree contrary to European law, in several respects. The European Court of Justice has long condemned the principle of detention of migrants, even irregular ones. The Catania court also attacks the new possibility for those coming from safe countries to keep their freedom in exchange for a bail of €5,000.
The young Tunisian who won his appeal against the Italian police is now free. The opposition is jubilant, while in the ranks of the majority, there is talk of an ideological sentence.
