Italian migration centers open in Albania under controversial agreement | Italy

Italy has officially opened two centers in Albania where it plans to hold men caught in international waters while trying to cross from Africa to Europe.

Italy’s ambassador to Albania, Fabrizio Bucci, said the centers were ready to accept people while their asylum claims were processed, but could not say when the first would arrive. “Today the two centers are ready and operational,” Bucci told reporters at the port of Shëngjin on Albania’s Adriatic coast, where the captured people will disembark.

Under a controversial deal that has been criticized by human rights groups but tacitly approved by the EU, up to 3,000 men a month are sent to the centers while their asylum claims are processed in Italy. Children, pregnant women and vulnerable people continue to be brought to Italy.

The agreement was signed last November by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her Albanian counterpart Edi Rama. Meloni said at the time that in return for Rami’s support of the centers, she would do everything in her power to support Albania’s accession to the EU.

Meloni, who once said Italy should repatriate people and then “sink the boats that saved them,” argued that the plan was necessary to reduce sea arrivals.

“The most useful element of this project is that it can represent an exceptional tool to deter illegal migrants trying to reach Europe,” Meloni said in June, adding that “the agreement will be replicated in many countries and will be part of the EU structures “Solution” for the migration crisis.

The two centers in Albania cost Italy €670m (£564m). They are operated from Italy and subject to Italian jurisdiction. Albanian guards ensure external security.

A center was set up in Shëngjin, about 75 km north of the capital Tirana. The other is about 24 km south of Shëngjin near a former military airport in Gjadër.

Meloni said officials would try to process asylum applications within 28 days, much faster than the months currently needed in Italy.

Albania will only process applications from people from countries declared safe by Italy. The list was recently expanded from 15 to 21 countries. The updated list includes Bangladesh, Egypt, Ivory Coast and Tunisia, among others. Last year, 56,588 people from these countries made their way to Italy.

It is expected that the vast majority of applications will be rejected because the applicants’ countries of origin are considered safe, which automatically limits the possibilities for granting asylum. Those whose applications are rejected will be detained before their eventual repatriation.

Anyone whose application is accepted will be taken to Italy.

Meloni and her right-wing allies have long called for European countries to share more of the migration burden.

Aid workers have sharply criticized the agreement, saying they fear the centers will quickly fill up with people waiting to return home.

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Doctors Without Borders said the deal goes “a step beyond” previous agreements between EU countries and non-member states such as Turkey, Libya and Tunisia. “The aim is no longer just to prevent departures, but to actively prevent people from fleeing and those rescued at sea from not having safe and rapid access to European territory,” Médecins Sans Frontières said in a statement.

Riccardo Magi, the leader of the left-wing More Europe party, said: “They are creating a kind of Italian Guantánamo, outside all international standards, outside the EU, with no possibility of monitoring the detention status of the people locked up in it centers. Italy cannot transport people rescued at sea like packages or goods to a non-EU country.”

On August 14, the UN refugee agency, which had raised serious concerns about the agreement, agreed to monitor the first three months of the agreement’s validity.

The UNHCR said it was not a party to the agreement, maintained reservations about it and called for clarification on how the agreement would be implemented. However, the agency said it agreed to act as an observer to “protect the rights and dignity of those affected.”
Some Albanians said the agreement was a way to thank Italy for taking in thousands of people fleeing poverty in Albania after the fall of communism in 1991.

The Council of Europe’s human rights commissioner said the agreement could set a dangerous precedent. “The cross-border shifting of responsibility by some states also creates an incentive for others to do the same, risking a domino effect that could undermine the European and global system of international protection,” it said.

Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report