After a two-month pause, Italy will resume operations to transfer migrants rescued in the Mediterranean to processing centers in Albania.

Sources confirmed on Friday that the Italian Navy patrol ship Cassiopea is near the island of Lampedusa and ready to transport migrants to the centers in Shëngjin and Gjader, which were opened last October as part of an agreement between Rome and Tirana.

Italian courts had previously declined to approve the detention of two small initial groups of asylum seekers sent to Albania, referring their cases to the European Court of Justice. The court emphasized that migrants cannot face expedited deportation procedures if their countries of origin are not fully safe.

In earlier cases, countries of origin such as Bangladesh and Egypt were not deemed safe across their entire territories. To address this issue, the Italian government in December approved a measure including a list of 19 countries considered safe for repatriation, which now includes Bangladesh and Egypt.