The Italian government has suffered another legal defeat over its efforts to process asylum applications by migrants arriving via the Mediterranean Sea in an offshore facility in Albania. An appeals court in Rome ruled that 43 men taken to two facilities in Albania must be released and brought back to Italy,

A Rome court on Friday ordered a group of migrants detained in camps built in Albania to be transferred to Italy, sources said, dealing a fresh blow to a plan by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to curb irregular sea arrivals.

An Italian appeals court has refused to approve the speedy expulsion of 43 asylum seekers detained in Albania under a controversial migration deal to move the proceedings beyond European Union borders.