Petillo also referred to Britain backing away from its controversial and expensive plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda as ultimately unworkable. Italy’s center-left opposition quickly called for an end to the Albania plan, saying the court ruling proves its illegality.

A special immigration court in Rome ruled that the 12 migrants, sent to the camp at Gjader not far from the Adriatic coast in northern Albania, should be brought back to Italy because they were from countries considered unsafe to be returned to.