A ruling by the EU's top court has dealt a further blow to Italy's attempts to create a fast-track system in Albania for processing asylum applications offshore.

Europe's top court on Friday questioned the legitimacy of the "safe countries" list Italy uses to send migrants to Albania and fast-track their asylum claims, in a fresh blow to a key plank of the government's migration policy.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has criticised Europe’s top court after it delivered a legal blow to her signature scheme to curb irregular migration. Meloni struck a deal with Albania in 2023 to transfer some Italy-bound migrants to Italian-run processing centres there for a fast-track evaluation of asylum claims deemed unlikely to succeed.