“We concluded that the Protocol between the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Albania and the Government of the Republic of Italy “On strengthening cooperation in the field of migration” is in accordance with the Constitution and green-lit its ratification by the Assembly,” the ruling of the Constitutional Court (CC ) reads.

“This decision is immediately notified to President of the Republic, the Assembly and the Council of Ministers and is sent for publication in the Official Gazette. This decision is final and enters into force on the day of its publication in the Official Gazette.”

In the decision, it is stated that the Court notes that although de facto the areas provided for in the Protocol on Migration will be used by the Italian authorities for the handling under the Italian legislation of the asylum requests from migrants who intend to enter Italy, this does not rule out the responsibility of the Albanian authorities vis-à-vis migrants from the positive obligation. This responsibility is written into the Constitution, as well as in international law binding for the Republic of Albania, which includes, but not limited to, the ECHR and the Geneva Convention.”

In this sense, the CC continues, the Migration Protocol does not constrain the Albanian state from exercising its jurisdiction at the constitutional and convention level.

On the other hand, the decision reads, as far as requests for asylum are concerned, in terms of international obligations, no such obligation has arisen for the Albanian state as long as the Italian state exercises this jurisdiction over persons, as the state where the illegal migrants arrive.

The responsibility of handling the asylum requests filed by migrants seeking to enter the territory of the Republic of Italy belongs to the authorities of that state, which means that when it chooses to proceed outside its territory, it must necessarily exercise jurisdiction to fulfill the international obligations, according to the CC.

In other words, the jurisdiction of the Italian state is connected and arises on the back of international conventions and the obligations of the member states in terms of asylum issues. In this aspect, due to the peculiarity of migrants regulated by the Protocol on Migration, the jurisdictions of the two countries that are party to it are complementary to each other, in the service of the fundamental rights of migrants. Consequently, the Court judges that the Protocol on Migration is a bilateral agreement on the division of duties between the Albanian and Italian authorities for the issues of migrants and the subgroup of asylum seekers, which aims to avoid a jurisdictional and responsibility vacuum for their fundamental rights and freedoms, therefore, the transfer of jurisdiction to the Italian authorities for the issues of migrants and asylum seekers was necessary, the decision reads.
/r.e/sm/