"Migrants are brothers and sisters with their dignity, not packages to be shoved from one place to another," said the vice-president of the Italian Bishop Conference (CEI), Mons. Francesco Savino, commenting on the return of 12 migrants after a Rome court rejected their detention in Albania.

Speaking to ANSA, Mons. Savino expressed concern about the migrants' suffering, given the bad weather they faced at sea. He also warned of a "clash of powers" and criticized the focus on security over human dignity.

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"As a citizen and pastor, I warn against a clash of powers," Savino said, following the court ruling. He emphasized that when powers fail to respect one another, democracy is at risk.

Reflecting on migration laws, he pointed out that policies like the Bossi-Fini law, the Cutro decree, and the decision to externalize migrants to Albania, all share a common theme of treating immigrants as adversaries. "There is an attitude focusing on security that goes beyond any form of objective reality," he added.

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'Clash of powers placing our democracy at risk'

Speaking about the Italy-Albania deal he said: "We are asking Italians to make sacrifices, I am sorry for the money thrown away."

"I don’t want to be confrontational in the choices made by politicians but CEI has already expressed its perplexity regarding the externalization of migrants in Albania," recalled the bishop.

Savino warned of a "clash of powers placing our democracy at risk" following the court's decision not to validate the detention of 12 migrants sent to the Italian-run center in Albania for expedited border procedures. The court based its ruling on the fact that the migrants came from Bangladesh and Egypt, countries deemed unsafe by a recent European Court of Justice ruling. Government officials criticized the decision, accusing the judiciary of "overstepping their powers."

"Without reciprocal respect, the lack of confidence of citizens is fuelled and people move away, they don’t vote anymore because they don’t believe in the possibility of change," he stressed.

CEI like Pope Francis says 'no more walls, let’s strengthen bridges'

The vice president of CEI recalled that the position of Italian bishops on migration is the same as the one outlined by the pontiff: "Pope Francis has been saying for years ‘enough with walls, let’s instead strengthen bridges’ regarding migrant brothers and sisters. The pontiff has called for serious, responsible hosting, a legal form of hosting."

The concern "already expressed by CEI" is of a "pastoral" nature, he went on to say. "We ask for people to be respected. We had said that there was a risk of considering migrants as sorts of packages and this is exactly what happened”. Now the center in Albania "is once again empty and it was quite obvious that such an accelerated procedure, without considering all elements of a person’s history, implied this risk."

"We don’t want our jackets – actually our robes – to be pulled by anyone, but as pastors, we must place people’s dignity at the center," he concluded.

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