Italian ship heads back to Albania with eight migrants

An Italian navy ship has set sail for Albania carrying a second small group of migrants, with Rome looking to salvage a controversial plan to process asylum seekers abroad after a first attempt hit legal hurdles.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's government hopes that taking boat migrants to guarded camps in Albania rather than letting them enter Italy will act as a deterrence to others considering making the dangerous sea crossing to Europe.

Italy sent an initial group of 16 migrants to Albania last month, but they were all brought back within days, the majority of them after a Rome court ruled they could not be held in the Balkan country due to concerns over their legal status.

Only eight migrants were dispatched towards Albania on Wednesday from where they had been rescued near the island of Lampedusa, suggesting the government was treading softly, testing to...