An Italian ship with eight immigrants leaves for Albania

An Italian navy ship set sail for Albania on Wednesday, carrying the second group of migrants.

Rome aims to save the controversial plan to hold migrants in reception centers in Albania while their asylum claims are processed, after the first attempt ran into legal hurdles.

The government of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni hopes that sending migrants to detention centers in Albania, rather than allowing them to enter Italy, will influence other migrants to think about the dangers of crossing the sea to Europe.

Italy initially sent a group of 16 migrants to Albania last month, but all of them were turned back within days, most after a court in Rome ordered that they not be held in Albania because of concerns about their legal status.

Only eight migrants left for Albania on Wednesday from where they were rescued near the island of Lampedusa, meaning the Italian government is testing whether it can overcome the legal hurdle it faced in October.

The first group of migrants came from Egypt and Bangladesh, two of the 22 countries Italy had designated as safe, meaning the government believed they could be repatriated quickly.

However, the court in Rome questioned this, citing a recent ruling by the European Court of Justice, which said that countries outside the European Union cannot be declared safe unless their territory is deemed not to face risks.

As a result, all immigrants sent to Albania returned to Italy, where they were placed in unguarded reception centers.

Angered by this decision, Meloni decided to update the legal status of the list of safe places, making it a legal act instead of a ministerial decree, believing that this will make it more difficult for the courts to challenge its validity.

The Italian Navy did not indicate from which countries the migrants headed today towards Albania come from.

Albania and Italy reached an agreement last November on housing immigrants in two centers.

The first center in Shengjin will be used for immigrant identification procedures, while the second center, in Gjadër, about 20 kilometers from the port, will be used to house immigrants until asylum requests are processed.

The centers will operate under Italian law, with Italian security staff, while judges will hold hearings via video link from Rome.

The agreement, which has been criticized by human rights organizations, foresees that Albania will accept up to 36.000 immigrants a year.