- Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni visited Albania to thank the Albanian government for hosting refugees while Italy processes their asylum applications.
- Meloni denied that the visit was a campaign trip for the upcoming European elections and criticised the opposition’s claims.
- Last November, Foreign Minister Meroni and Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama signed a five-year agreement under which Albania will provide protection for up to 3,000 migrants each month.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni visited Albania on Wednesday to thank his government for the unique role it played in agreeing to take in thousands of refugees while Italy processes their asylum applications, and to tour a migrant center that will be ready in August.
Meloni denied that it was a day trip for campaigning on the eve of European elections, where migration is a major issue, and slammed criticism of the visit as a typical opposition ploy.
Meloni and Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama signed a five-year agreement in November in which Albania agreed to provide shelter to up to 3,000 refugees rescued from international waters each month while Italy processes their asylum claims. Processing the asylum claims is expected to take about a month, and the number of refugees sent to Albania could reach up to 36,000 in a year.
Albanian lawmakers approve deal to help country house thousands of Italy-bound migrants
“They (the Italian people) are grateful to their government and we thank the Albanian people for this important goodwill effort they are making to support us,” Meloni told a news conference.
Police officers stand guard at a migrant reception centre in the port of Shenzhen in northwestern Albania, June 5, 2024. Foreign Minister Meloni visited Albania on Wednesday to thank the country for its unique role in agreeing to take in thousands of refugees while Italy processes their asylum applications, and to tour the migrant centre, which he said will be ready in August. (AP Photo/Vlasov Surey)
Albania is not a member of the European Union, so the idea of sending asylum seekers outside the bloc is controversial. The deal has been supported by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as an example of “outside the box thinking” but has been widely criticized by human rights groups who warn it could jeopardize refugee protection.
Meloni defended the “highly innovative” plan as a vital part of policing migration, aiming to stop asylum seekers paying smugglers to make the dangerous crossing of the Mediterranean.
He said the deal has attracted the interest of 15 of the EU’s 27 member states, who have asked the European Commission “whether the EU could follow the Italian model in its agreement with Albania.”
“The most useful aspect of this project is that it could act as an extra deterrent against illegal immigrants trying to reach Europe,” she said.
Tiny Italian island overwhelmed by thousands of migrants who arrived in 24 hours
Accompanied by Interior Minister Matteo Piantendosi, Foreign Minister Meloni began his visit to the Western Balkans at Giader, a former military airport 80 kilometers north of the capital, Tirana, where construction has begun on the first of two migrant centers.
Meloni next visited the port of Shenjin, 20 kilometers southwest of Ghader, where a reception center with housing and offices is located on a 4,000-square-meter (4,800-square-yard) site surrounded by a five-meter (yard-high) metal fence topped with barbed wire.
Meloni acknowledged that the opening of the centers had been delayed by two months because one of the facilities needed unexpected structural strengthening. He said both centers would be up and running on August 1, ready to take in the first 1,000 migrants. Regular ferry services to and from Italy are due to start in mid-September.
Meloni and her right-wing allies have long called for European countries to share more of the migration burden and have held up the deal with Albania as a transformative solution to a problem that has plagued the EU for years.
Meloni, of the far-right Brothers of Italy party, is also promoting the so-called “Mattei Plan,” which would provide funding for projects in African countries along the migrant routes in exchange for tougher migration controls.
At the end of the press conference, Riccardo Maggi, a member of the Italian parliament from the liberal PlusEurope party and part of the delegation, clashed with bodyguards as they tried to block Lama and Meloni’s motorcade, saying the deal was doomed from the start and had been politicized by Meloni. Meloni stopped to exchange words with Maggi.
Building two processing centers in Albania will cost Italy 670 million euros ($730 million) over five years. Meloni said the cost of sending 36,000 migrants to Italy would be 136 million euros ($148 million), roughly the same as what it would cost in Albania.
The facilities will be fully run by Italy to fast-track migrant asylum applications, and both centres will be under Italian jurisdiction, with Albanian security personnel providing external security.
Italy will welcome the migrants if they are granted international protection, but will arrange for their deportation from Albania if their protection is rejected.
People rescued in Italian territorial waters or by rescue ships operated by non-governmental organisations will retain the right under international and EU law to apply for asylum in Italy and to have their application processed in Italy.
The number of migrants arriving in Italy is down significantly compared to the same period last year: As of Tuesday, 21,574 people had arrived in Italy by boat so far this year, down from 51,628 in the same period in 2023, according to data from the Italian Interior Ministry.
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Rama, from Albania’s left-wing ruling Socialist party, said the agreement was a sign of gratitude to Albanians who fled to Italy after the collapse of communism in Albania in the 1990s and “fled hell to imagine a better life.”
“Italy has supported Albania many times before. If there is any possibility for us to contribute to Italy, let’s use this opportunity,” Rama said.
According to Rama, Tirana is rejecting requests from other countries for similar deals to those offered by Italy.
Italy’s center-left opposition has denounced the agreement as an expensive publicity stunt ahead of European elections and a shameful attempt to turn Albania into Italy’s “Guantanamo.”
A group of 30 conservative Albanian opposition lawmakers unsuccessfully appealed to the Constitutional Court to block the Italy-Albania deal on human rights grounds.
