The Italian government’s plans to process illegal migrants in camps in Albania have been dealt a new blow in court.

The country’s top judges, previously branded “communists” by the deputy prime minister, ruled the latest batch of asylum seekers cannot remain in the Balkan country and must be brought to Italy.

A group of seven Egyptians and Bangladeshis were intercepted in the Mediterranean and taken to Albania, where Giorgia Meloni’s government has built two facilities in the hope of processing and repatriating tens of thousands of migrants a year.

But, in the latest setback to the €670 million scheme, a court in Rome on Monday refused to validate the transfer of the migrants to Albania and referred the case to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg.

The seven migrants were taken by an Italian coast guard vessel from Albania to Puglia in southern Italy, where they will be able to request asylum.