Italy’s Top Court Orders Government to Compensate Migrants Who Were Stranded at Sea for Days

Migrants stand on the deck of the Italian Coast Guard ship Diciotti, moored at the Catania harbor, Tuesday, Aug. 21, 2018. (AP Photo/Salvatore Cavalli)

By GIADA ZAMPANO

11:10 AM EST, March 7, 2025

ROME (AP) — Italy’s highest appeals court has ordered the government to compensate a group of migrants who were stranded at sea for days on a coast guard vessel in 2018 due to then-Interior minister Matteo Salvini ’s tough anti-migration policies.

Premier Giorgia Meloni on Friday criticized the court decision as “questionable” and “frustrating.”

The Cassation court ruling, which overturns a previous one, ordered the Italian government to pay for damages inflicted to the migrants at the time of the standoff. Judges late on Thursday sent the case back to an ordinary court, asking it to define the exact amount of compensation to be granted.

A group of Eritrean migrants appealed to the Cassation court over the ordeal of 190 migrants by Italy’s Diciotti coast guard ship in August 2018. Thirteen migrants with health problems were first disembarked on the island of Lampedusa, off Italy’s southern coast. The ship then headed to Catania, in Sicily, but was blocked for about 10 days by Salvini’s orders before the remaining 177 migrants were allowed off.

Meloni, who leads a conservative coalition including hardline League leader and vice-premier Salvini, said the ruling won’t help “citizens getting closer to institutions.”

“Due to this decision, the government will need to pay compensation — using money from honest Italian citizens who pay taxes – to people who tried to enter Italy illegally, violating the Italian law,” she wrote in a social media post.

Salvini called the ruling “absurd” in his own post and urged the magistrates to use their own money if they really want to compensate their “beloved migrants.” He has always said that his job was to defend Italy’s borders.

It was the latest chapter of a months-long clash between the Italian magistrates and the Meloni government, which is trying to push forward a radical reform of the judiciary system. Many critics say it puts the judiciary’s independence at risk.

Italian courts have also been challenging Meloni’s flagship initiative to transfer migrants to costly reception centers built in Albania for fast-track processing.