The new plan Giorgia Meloni to control the immigration in Italy It is already underway, although with some errors. This Thursday the first boat with 16 migrants intercepted in international waters to be processed there, although two of them were minorswhich have already been returned to Italy.
A fact that, according to APhas emerged through local media, which have not given more details about the matter, although it highlights some of the first system failuressince it is assumed that the deportees had been previously processed so that they fulfilled all the requirements to leave the country: be from safe countries, masculine, not vulnerable and of legal age, as indicated this Monday by sources from the Italian Ministry of the Interior, which is in charge of the initiative.
Last week, Italy formally opened two centers in Albania where it plans to process thousands of asylum seekers outside its borders, something that has generated acceptance and rejection in European countries. This Thursday morning, the first 16 deportees arrived on the warship Libra, which left the port of Lampedusa on Monday with 10 men from Bangladesh and six from Egypt who were rescued at sea after leaving Libya.
The centers built in Albania must house exclusively adult men, while Vulnerable people such as women, children, the elderly, the sick will be accommodated in Italy or victims of torture. Families will not be separated.
The Italian ambassador to Albania, Fabrizio Bucci, noted on Friday that the two centers were ready to process migrants after the opening will be delayed for five months due to the collapse of the ground in one of the centers, Gjader, which has capacity for 3,000 immigrants, although it will start with 400 and increase to 880 in a few weeks.
“The European dream ends here”
A small group of activists gathered this Thursday at the entrance to the port to protest the arrival of the migrants, holding a banner that read: “The European dream ends here”. “This agreement goes into against human rightsmore specifically the rights of migrants,” they have pointed out.
Under a five year agreement signed last November by the Italian Prime Minister and her Albanian counterpart, Edi Rama, until 3,000 immigrants picked up by the Italian coast guard in international waters every month they will be welcomed in Albania. They will be initially examined on board the rescue ships before being sent to Albania for further examination. The two centers will cost Italy 670 million euros.
The controversial deal to outsource the accommodation of asylum seekers to a non-EU country has been welcomed by some countries which, like Italy, are experiencing a high level of migrant arrivals. The pact was endorsed this Tuesday by the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyenas an example of “innovative thinking” when addressing the issue of migration to the European Union. But human rights groups have criticized it because they believe it sets a dangerous precedent.
Rama has made it clear that no other country will be able to have centers of this type in Albania and has stated that he feels gratitude for the tens of thousands of Albanians who were received by Italy when communism fell in 1991, or for the support provided by Rome during the economic crisis of 1997 and after the earthquake of 2019.
Meloni and his allies on the right they carry long demanding that European countries share more of the migration burden. The Italian Prime Minister has presented the agreement with Albania as an innovative solution to a problem that has worried the EU for years.
