Italy furious as activist court orders compensation for illegal immigrant
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More than 150 migrants remained at sea on the coast guard vessel Diciotti in August 2018 as then-Interior Minister Matteo Salvini denied them permission to disembark at the Sicilian port of Catania.
Some 41 of them, from Eritrea, turned to the courts with the assistance of rights activists, seeking damages for illegal detention. After their case was twice rejected by lower courts, in 2019 and 2024, one took it to the top Court of Cassation.
On Thursday the court ruled in favour of the migrant, who was not named.
"Government actions can never be considered exempt from judicial review when they go beyond the limits imposed by the constitution and the law, especially when the fundamental rights of citizens (or foreigners) are at stake," the Cassation said.
Meloni, whose administration has taken a hard line on immigration and has clashed several times with the judiciary, including over a stalled plan to send sea migrants to Albania, said it was "very frustrating" to be forced to compensate, "people who attempted to enter Italy illegally ... with the money of honest Italian citizens who pay taxes," when state resources are scarce.
The Cassation left it to lower-level judges to determine how much compensation the migrant should get, but the amount is likely to be between 1,000 and 2,000 euros, according to experts.
"Let the judges pay and welcome the illegal immigrants, if they care so much," Salvini, who is now deputy prime minister and transport minister, said on social media, slamming the Cassation's ruling as, "yet another disgrace."
Nearly all the other illegal immigrants in the group have relocated to other European countries.
In the 2018 episode, Italy eventually relented after Albania and Ireland offered to accept some of the blocked migrants, and Italy's Catholic Church agreed to take responsibility for the rest at no cost to the taxpayer.
Prosecutors in Sicily had sought in 2018 to investigate Salvini for abuse of power and kidnapping of the migrants, but the Italian Senate denied them permission, ending the case.
(Reporting by Alvise Armellini, editing by Gavin Jones and Angus MacSwan)
