An Albanian court on Monday gave the green light to a deal that would allow Italy to send migrants rescued by Italian ships in the Mediterranean to detention camps in Albania while their asylum claims are considered.
The agreement is part of the Italian government’s multifaceted efforts to stop migration, especially crossing the Mediterranean Sea, and sends a message that many illegal migrants will not be allowed direct entry into Italy, even temporarily. become.
The agreement was signed by the leaders of both countries in November, but was challenged by Albanian opposition lawmakers who said it violated the country’s constitution.
On Monday, Albania’s Constitutional Court issued a separate ruling, paving the way for the deal to be taken up by parliament, where Prime Minister Edi Rama’s Socialist Party holds 75 of 140 seats.
In Italy, the deal has already been approved by the lower house and sent to the upper house, where Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing political alliance holds a majority.
Announcing the deal last year, Meloni called it a “model of cooperation between EU and non-EU countries in managing migration flows” and said it was based on a “bold European spirit”.
The agreement will allow two centers to be built around the port of Moritsu, capable of housing up to 3,000 migrants at a time.
At one point, migrants caught at sea were able to register for asylum and file their cases remotely with Italian judges. The other is waiting for a response to your application, which can often take several months. Migrants whose asylum claims are rejected will be expelled by Albania to their home country.
People deemed “vulnerable” such as children, pregnant women, and the sick and disabled will not go to centers, but will be taken directly to Italy for processing, the government said.
In exchange for Albania’s prime minister’s immigration support, Meloni said he would do everything in his power to support Albania’s accession to the European Union.
More than 157,000 migrants landed on Italian shores last year, mostly from Africa and Asia, up from 105,000 in 2022, Interior Ministry data shows. Countless migrants have died trying to reach safety.
The International Organization for Migration said on Monday that nearly 100 people have gone “dead or missing” in the Mediterranean since the beginning of 2024, more than double the number who died during the same period last year. The group estimates that more than 3,000 people will die in the Mediterranean in 2023.
Apart from the deal with Albania, Meloni also signed agreements to limit immigration with Tunisia and Libya. But she argued that the European Union should share the burden of controlling migrants landing in Italy.
Meloni met African leaders in Rome on Monday to promote Africa’s economic development and discourage youth migration.
The deal with Albania is reminiscent of an agreement in which the UK government flies asylum seekers to Rwanda before their claims are assessed and pays for migration costs if migrants stay there. Although the British courts have rejected this proposal, the approach remains a top priority for Chancellor Rishi Sunak.
When the Albania deal was announced in November, Council of Europe Human Rights Commissioner Dunja Mijatović warned of a “worrying trend in Europe towards the externalization of asylum responsibilities”.
“Externalization measures significantly increase the risk of exposing refugees, asylum seekers and migrants to human rights violations,” Mijatovic said in a statement. “Shifting responsibility across borders by some countries could encourage other countries to do the same, creating a domino effect that could undermine the European and global international protection system.” There is a sex.”
The Italy-Albania agreement was supported by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyden, who called it “an example of outside-the-box thinking based on fair sharing of responsibilities with third countries.” ” he called.
However, the proposed arrangement has been widely criticized by human rights groups.
Some critics have raised legal concerns about Italy’s jurisdiction in Albania, warning that it will be difficult to ensure that Albanian immigrants have the same rights as they would in Italy.
Italian opposition politicians have criticized the estimated cost of building and managing the two centers in Albania. Matteo Mauri, a lawmaker from the opposition Democratic Party, estimated that the deal would cost Italy 653 million euros (about $700 million) over the first five years, saying the number of migrants would be negligible.
“This agreement is completely useless according to European Union law, has questionable legitimacy and is extremely costly,” Mauri said. The money could instead be spent on existing processing centers in Italy, he said in a phone interview.
With European elections looming in June, Mauri called the deal “a political propaganda operation by the prime minister.” The prime minister has made curbing immigration a political cornerstone of his far-right party, Italian Brothers.
At a hearing in the Italian Senate earlier this month, some experts said the deal could be copied in Libya and Tunisia. Some expressed doubts about the message Italy was sending to Europe.
Stefano Manservisi, a professor of cross-border governance at the Florence-based European University Institute, called the arrangement a “baroque structure” that created a dual system of reception.
“Italy insists that migration should be managed at the European level and is currently excluding some of the issues from the European debate.” “On the one hand, Italy says it receives little aid from the European system, but on the other hand, it has created a system that does not benefit from European support.”
Fatjona Mejdini contributed reporting from Albania.