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

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.