An Italian appeals court has refused to approve the speedy expulsion of 43 asylum seekers detained in Albania under a controversial migration deal to move the proceedings beyond European Union borders.

The Italian government has suffered another legal defeat over its efforts to process asylum applications by migrants arriving via the Mediterranean Sea in an offshore facility in Albania. An appeals court in Rome ruled that 43 men taken to two facilities in Albania must be released and brought back to Italy,

Italian authorities have rejected the asylum requests of 43 asylum-seekers transferred to Albania in a speedy procedure that a non-governmental delegation observing the process said illegally deprived

An Italian navy ship arrived Tuesday in Albania with 49 migrants who were intercepted in international waters. Their asylum applications are set to be handled by processing centres in Albania.

All asylum requests of 43 migrants at an innovative but controversial new Italian-run processing centre in Albania have been rejected, officials said Thursday after six of the original 49, two adults adjudged vulnerable and four minors,