Marco Oriunto
Friday November 10, 2023
Italian PM Giorgia Meloni and her Albanian counterpart Edi Rama announced the deal on Monday
Italy’s plan to detain migrants who make the dangerous crossing over the Mediterranean from Africa in Albania has received a mixed reaction.
On Monday, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her Albanian counterpart Edi Rama said that two migrant centres would be built in two towns on Albania’s north-western coast.
Together the centres will host up to 3,000 people as the Italian government attempts to outsource the processing of some migrants.
Because Albania is not part of the European Union, the centres will allow Italy to avoid rules dictated by the Dublin Regulation that stipulates refugees seek asylum in the first EU country they enter.
This year alone 145,000 people have arrived in Italy mostly from Guinea, Ivory Coast and Tunisia, UN figures show.
Ms Meloni said children, pregnant women and “other vulnerable subjects” would not be sent to Albania, specifying that the purpose of the agreement is was to “prevent illegal migration and welcome only those who have the right to international protection”.
But the plan has been criticised by Amnesty International, which said the plan was “illegal and unworkable”, adding that it should be scrapped.
A member of Italy’s left-leaning Piu’ Europa party, Riccardo Magi, branded the plan “an Italian Guantanamo”.
Residents of Shengjin, one of the Albanian towns that is to host a centre, expressed their concerns, telling online news outlet Euractiv that said they feared “tourism would be destroyed”.
Other residents were more positive, seeing it as a way to thank Italy for helping their families in the 1990s – a reference to the mass-migration of Albanian nationals to Italy after the fall of the communist regime in 1991.
Italy has previously explored the offshoring of asylum seekers – reportedly with Morocco, Egypt and Tunisia.
In September, the country passed measures that give the authorities the power to detain migrants for as long as 18 months while their applications are considered.