Two reception centers are being built in Albania, where those who want to cross the Mediterranean to Italy will be transferred.
In Albania, the parliament has approved an agreement on the placement of migrants who aspire to Italy in reception centers to be built in Albania.
According to the agreement, Italy will start transporting migrants it has caught from the Mediterranean Sea to Albania.
Prime minister in the Albanian parliament Edi Raman the proposed project went through, as expected, the ruling socialist party voted 77–0. There are 140 members in the Parliament. The opposition boycotted the vote and disrupted it by, among other things, blowing whistles.
According to the five-year agreement, migrants are in Albanian reception centers while their asylum applications are processed.
Albania is committed to detaining 3,000 migrants at a time. The number of migrants accommodated in a year may rise to 36,000 if the processing of asylum applications takes about a month as planned.
The processing centers will be built in the port city of Shëngjin in the northern part of Albania and in the nearby village of Gjadër.
Italy is responsible for deportations
Italy will pay for the construction and costs of the centers, which are estimated to be more than 500 million euros over five years. The Italian authorities maintain the centers and are responsible for their operation in accordance with the law.
Italy is responsible for receiving those who have received asylum and deporting those who have received a negative decision from centers in Albania.
Prime Minister of Italy Giorgia Meloni has previously estimated that the centers would be operational during the spring.
The project secretly run by Prime Minister Rama has aroused opposition in Albania as well. 30 opposition MPs tried to block the agreement by taking it to the Constitutional Court for consideration. The court gave the project the green light at the end of January after a quick review.
In addition to the opposition, human rights organizations have also criticized the project.
After the approval of the Parliament, the President of Albania Bajram Begaj still formally accepts the contract.
The prime minister of Albania justifies the project with a debt of gratitude
In Italy, the parliament has already approved the project.
Albania’s Rama and Italy’s Meloni signed an agreement on the matter last November. Melon’s goal is to share the migrant burden experienced by Italy. Almost 160,000 migrants arrived in Italy across the Mediterranean last year.
Among other things, the chairman of the EU Commission Ursula von der Leyen has supported the Italian-Albanian agreement.
Rama, on the other hand, hopes that the project will speed up the country’s efforts to become a member of the EU. Rama has also justified the agreement by saying that Albania owes Italy a debt of gratitude. Tens of thousands of Albanians fled to Italy after the collapse of communism in the early 1990s.