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Italy's Supreme Court has ordered the government to compensate a group of migrants who were stranded at sea for days on a coast guard ship in 2018 due to the harsh anti-immigrant policies of then-Interior Minister Matteo Salvini.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni criticized the court's decision as "suspicious" and "disappointing."
The Cassation Court ruling, which overturns an earlier one, ordered the Italian government to pay for damages caused to migrants during the lockdown. The judges sent the case back to the ordinary court, asking it to determine the exact amount of compensation to be awarded.
A group of Eritrean migrants have appealed to the Court of Cassation over the ordeal of 190 migrants from the Italian coast guard ship Diciotti in August 2018. Thirteen migrants with health problems were initially disembarked on the island of Lampedusa, off the southern coast of Italy. The ship then headed to Catania, Sicily, but was blocked for about 10 days on Salvini's orders before the remaining 177 migrants were allowed to disembark.
Meloni, who leads a conservative coalition including the League's hardline leader and deputy prime minister Salvini, said the decision would not help "citizens get closer to institutions."
"Because of this decision, the government will have to pay compensation - using money from honest Italian tax-paying citizens - to people who attempted to enter Italy illegally, in violation of Italian law," she wrote in a post on social media.
Salvini called the decision “absurd” and asked judges to use their own money if they really want to compensate “their beloved migrants.” He has always said his duty was to protect Italy’s borders.
It was the latest chapter in a months-long standoff between Italian judges and the Meloni government, which is trying to push through a sweeping reform of the judicial system that many critics say threatens the independence of the judiciary.
Italian courts have also challenged Meloni's flagship initiative to transfer migrants to reception centers built in Albania.
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