While the Italian government advances its immigration reform bill, the European Parliament in Strasbourg has given the green light to expanding the list of safe countries and to introducing new rules on migrant hubs abroad.

A vote that Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi described as a "major success for the Italian government, which with determination and conviction succeeded in asserting its positions on migration in Europe."

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Piantedosi: 'EU List in Line with Our Measures'

"Finally, the turning point requested by Italy on immigration has materialised," Piantedosi commented, stressing that the list is "in line with the measures already adopted" by Italy.

With the approval of two amendments to the EU Asylum Procedures Regulation (thanks to an alliance between the EPP (European Peoples Parties --a bloc in the European parliament representing the Christian Democratic right of center parties) and other further right leaning parties, Egypt and Tunisia, together with Bangladesh, Colombia, Kosovo, India, and Morocco, will now be considered safe countries, as will EU candidate countries.

With this new list, member states will be able to declare an application for protection inadmissible even where the applicant has merely transited through a safe third country in which effective protection could have been obtained.

They will also be allowed to conclude agreements with such countries to examine asylum applications there. This latter provision complements the so-called "naval blockade" measure expected to be included in Italy's immigration package.

In particular, the measure, initially contained in a draft security bill, would allow authorities to prohibit, for no more than 30 days (extendable up to a maximum of six months), the crossing of territorial waters "in cases of serious threat to public order or national security understood as a concrete risk of terrorist acts or terrorist infiltration," as well as in cases of "exceptional migratory pressure compromising the safe management of borders." In such circumstances, migrants may be "transferred also to third countries other than their country of nationality or origin, with which Italy has concluded specific agreements."

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Bill to implement the European Pact on Migration and Asylum

The immigration bill aims, among other things, to implement the European Pact on Migration and Asylum, which will enter into force in June, and will also incorporate additional provisions previously removed from the draft security bill.

These are expected to include tighter rules on family reunification, while it appears less likely that the so-called "Almasri safeguard clause" will be included. That provision, also contained in earlier drafts of the security bill, envisaged "the surrender to the state of nationality of a person deemed dangerous to national security or to international relations."

Meanwhile, the European Parliament's approval of the safe countries list has sparked a range of reactions.

For Brothers of Italy MEP Alessandro Ciriani, a "clear political choice has been made: to return governance of the migration phenomenon to politics." A different view was expressed by MEPs from the Greens and Left Alliance: "The right to asylum has effectively been erased, making way for the dehumanisation of migrants," they said.

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