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. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has said that the way the Italian government currently defines whether a country is "safe" to return someone whose application is rejected contravenes EU law.

Europe's top court questioned the legitimacy of the "safe countries" list Italy uses to send migrants to Albania.

The specific case that led to the ECJ's opinion involved two Bangladeshi nationals who were rescued at sea by Italian authorities and taken to Italy's detention centre in Albania,