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Italian migration centres open in Albania under controversial deal, an extraordinary tool of deterrence for illegal migrants destined to reach Europe

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Alfrescian
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Edi Rama and Giorgia Meloni attend the signing ceremony in Rome in November for the migration deal that led to the establishment of the two centres in Albania. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Anadolu/Getty Images
Italy

Italy has formally opened two centres in Albania where it plans to hold men who are intercepted in international waters while trying to cross from Africa to Europe.

The Italian ambassador to Albania, Fabrizio Bucci, said the centres were ready to accommodate people while their asylum applications were processed, but could not say when the first ones would arrive. “As of today, the two centres are ready and operational,” Bucci told journalists at the port of Shëngjin on Albania’s Adriatic coast where the people picked up will land.


Under the terms of a controversial deal that has been criticised by human rights groups but tacitly endorsed by the EU, up to 3,000 men a month will be taken to the centres while their asylum requests are processed in Italy. Children, women and vulnerable individuals will still be taken to Italy.

The agreement was signed last November by the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, and her Albanian counterpart, Edi Rama. Meloni said at the time that in exchange for Rami’s backing for the centres 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 rescued them”, has argued that the plan is necessary to reduce arrivals by sea.

“The most useful element of this project is that it can represent an extraordinary tool of deterrence for illegal migrants destined to reach Europe,” Meloni said in June, adding that “the agreement could be replicated in many countries and become part of the EU’s structural solution” to the migration crisis.

The two centres in Albania have cost Italy €670m (£564m). They are being run by Italy and are under Italian jurisdiction. Albanian guards will provide external security.

One centre has been established in Shëngjin, about 45 miles (75km) north of the capital, Tirana. The other is about 15 miles south of Shëngjin near a former military airport in Gjadër.

Meloni has said officials will try to process asylum requests within 28 days, much quicker than the months it currently takes in Italy.

Albania will only process the applications of people from countries designated as safe by Italy, a list that has recently expanded from 15 nations to 21. The updated list includes Bangladesh, Egypt, Ivory Coast and Tunisia among others. In the previous year, 56,588 people from those countries made their way to Italy.

The vast majority of requests are expected to be rejected, because the countries the applicants come from are considered safe, which automatically limits the scope for asylum to be granted. Those whose requests are turned down will be detained before their eventual repatriation.

Anyone whose request is accepted will be taken to Italy.

Meloni and her rightwing allies have long demanded that European countries share more of the migration burden.

Aid workers have strongly criticised the agreement, saying they fear the centres will rapidly fill with people waiting to be returned home.
 
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