Salvini rails against "communist judges" amid fresh blow to migrant scheme.

The Italian government's contested migrant repatriation scheme in Albania hit a fresh hurdle on Monday after a Sicilian court ruled that Egypt cannot be considered a "safe" country.

In a challenge to the government's newly updated list of "safe" countries to which migrants can be returned under an expedited process, the tribunal in Catania refused to grant a detention order for an Egyptian asylum seeker.

The Catania judges recalled that the European Court of Justice ruled recently that a country cannot be deemed "safe" unless it protects the rights of all its citizens throughout its territory.

The court, headed by Judge Massimo Escher, cited "serious human rights violations" in Egypt, including the death penalty, systematic torture by police, and violence and discrimination against women and minors.

Escher also cited "forced disappearances", in what is viewed as a clear reference to Italian student Giulio Regeni who was abducted and tortured to death in Cairo in 2016.

The ruling is the latest legal obstacle for the government's controversial migrant repatriation scheme, a flagship policy of right-wing premier Giorgia Meloni who agreed the offshore deal last year with her Albanian counterpart Edi Rama.

Last week Bologna judges challenged a new government decree classifying 19 countries as "safe", asking how entire countries could be declared safe where there is evidence of the persecution of minorities.

The Bologna tribunal questioned the parameters of the decree, which was rushed through by Meloni's government after a Rome court rejected the detention of the first 12 migrants at the new processing facilities in Albania.

The Rome court made the ruling on the grounds that the migrants, from Bangladesh and Egypt, did not come from safe countries, and ordered their immediate return to Italy.

Meloni's government reacted angrily to the ruling and swiftly changed the law to overcome court objections, in a move slammed by human rights groups.

The ruling by the Catania court has also sparked a backlash from the government, with deputy premier Matteo Salvini writing on X: "Because of some communist judges who do not apply the laws, the unsafe country is now Italy. But we do not give up!"

Photo credit: Massimo Todaro / Shutterstock.com.