Albania’s Edi Rama and Italy’s Giorgia Meloni announced the plan at a press conference in Rome in November 2023.
Albania’s Constitutional Court has approved a controversial agreement to send asylum seekers in Italy to Albania.
Under this agreement, the Italian government will build two centers in northern Albania, process 36,000 people wish to travel to Italy every year.
The agreement will now need to be ratified by the Albanian parliament.
However, with Prime Minister Edi Rama holding an unshakable majority, it is likely to pass easily.
Under the agreement, around 3,000 people a month attempting to enter Italy by sea will be detained in two processing centers near the port of Moritsu in northeastern Albania while their asylum claims are examined.
The center will be paid for by the Italian government and operated under Italian law. The work will be carried out by Italian staff and, in some cases, exempt from Albanian law.
Once the migrants’ asylum claims have been assessed, Italy will be responsible for either resettling them from the center to Italy or deporting them. Security personnel and police officers will be provided by Albania.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Mr. Rama first presented the deal in Rome in November.
But on Monday, judges at the Constitutional Court ruled that the deal was not unconstitutional. They said the agreement “does not create new constitutional rights and freedoms, nor does it impose any additional restrictions on existing human rights and freedoms beyond those provided for by Albania’s legal order.” Ta.
The judges also rejected claims that the agreement establishing asylum reception facilities gave Italy sovereignty over Albanian territory, stating that the agreement “does not define territorial boundaries but rather changes the territorial integrity of the Republic of Albania. It is not a matter of any kind,” the court ruled.
Albanian media reported that the court’s judges rejected the application to block the bill in a 5-4 vote.
Last week, Italian parliamentarians voted in favor of the deal, by a vote of 155 to 115. The agreement will now be sent to the Italian Senate, where it is expected to be approved.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk told the Italian Senate last week that he was concerned that deporting asylum seekers to Albania would “raise important human rights issues”, including living conditions and freedom from arbitrary detention. Stated.
It is unclear when the center will open, but when plans were first announced it was tentatively scheduled for spring 2024.
Meloni, leader of the right-wing nationalist party Italian Brothers, has promised to crack down on immigration when elected in September 2022.
However, more than 155,000 migrants will enter Italy in 2023, an increase of 52,000 from the previous year.
The Albania plan is one of several interventions Meloni has proposed to eliminate illegal immigration.