Italy transfers first migrants to Albania in contentious asylum scheme

A group of migrants have been transferred from Italy to newly set up asylum processing centres in Albania, the country’s Interior Ministry said Monday.

The transfer is part of a contentious plan to process thousands of asylum-seekers outside Italy’s borders. Despite criticism of the scheme both at home and abroad, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has called the move “a good example”.

“It is a new, courageous, unprecedented path, but one that perfectly reflects the European spirit and has everything it takes to be followed also with other non-EU nations,” she said on Tuesday.

The agreement was signed last November by Meloni and her Albanian counterpart, Edi Rama.

Meloni’s far-right government formally opened the two centres in Albania on Friday. Rome plans to process thousands of male migrants requesting asylum there after intercepting them in international waters as they attempt to cross to Europe from the coast of North Africa.

The 16 men — 10 from Bangladesh and six from Egypt — were removed from the Sicilian island of Lampedusa by a naval ship after being rescued at sea.

They are expected to arrive in the Albanian port of Shëngjin on Wednesday, where identification and health screening will take place, a ministry spokesman said.

Those found to be in order and permitted to formally submit an asylum application to Italy will be transferred to Gjader, 20 kilometres from the Shëngjin port, where several processing facilities have been set up — among them a reception centre, a repatriation centre for those destined for deportation to their countries of origin, and a facility for those with criminal records.

The migrants were among roughly 1,000 who departed from the coast of Libya and were heading to or already landed on Lampedusa on Monday.

The plan begins

The agreement, signed last year, calls for Albania to house up to 3,000 male migrants while Italy fast-tracks their asylum claims. The migrants will retain their right under international and EU law to apply for asylum in Italy and have their claims processed there.

According to Italian officials, the Albanian centres will be able to accommodate up to 400 people at first, with capacity expected to increase to 880 in a few weeks.

Rome projects that running the two centres under Italian jurisdiction will cost about €670 million over five years.

A spokesman for the UN refugee agency, which has expressed serious concerns about the plan, said on Monday that one of its teams was conducting an “independent mission” on board the ship transporting the first dispatchees to monitor the screening process.

The agency has agreed to supervise the first three months of the scheme’s operation to help “safeguard the rights and dignity of those subject to it”.

Italian authorities say they do not intend to separate families, but women, children, and older people, and those who are ill or victims of torture will be accommodated in Italy.

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European support

With small boat crossings across the Mediterranean still affecting countries on the EU’s southern edge, Meloni and her right-wing allies have long demanded that European countries share more of the burden of migration.

Meloni has found an ally on the issue in European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who called on the continent’s leaders on Monday to learn a lesson from Italy’s experience in Albania.

“We should continue to explore possible ways forward regarding the idea of developing return hubs outside the union, especially given a new legislative proposal on return,” the Commission chief wrote in a letter.