(ANSA) - ROME, APR 11 - A first group of migrants was heading Friday to a centre in Albania that has been repurposed to a stay and repatriation centre (CPR) after its original purpose, as a processing and repatriation centre for migrants picked up at sea, was stymied by court rulings. The CPR at Gjader had been hailed as part of an innovative but controversial offshore processing scheme that had drawn praise from European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and several expressions of interest from other EU countries. The Navy ship Libra left Brindisi with 40 migrants on board destined for Gjader. They are citizens of various nationalities who in recent days arrived at a CPR in Brindisi, at Restinco, and for whom the Italian government has ordered their transfer to the facility in Albania. This decision came after the approval of the decree of March 28 that allows the transfer not only of asylum seekers intercepted at sea, but also of irregular immigrants to whom the police commissioner has delivered an expulsion decree and a judge has validated their stay in a CPR. The government is still hoping to revive its original Albania processing scheme for migrants intercepted at sea, serving as a deterrent against departures. (ANSA).