After a year of government without concrete results in terms of the fight against illegal immigration, Giorgia Meloni is trying to take control of this thorny issue. She has just signed a memorandum of understanding in Rome with her Albanian counterpart, Edi Rama. This provides for the installation in Albania of two detention centers for migrants, rescued in the Mediterranean, for the purposes of asylum application or repatriation procedures.
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With our correspondent in Rome, Anne Le Nir
The excellent understanding displayed in Rome between Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her Albanian counterpart, Edi Rama, should therefore make it possible to lighten the burden of migrants in Italy.
According to the agreement signed at Chigi Palace, the seat of government, those transferred to Albania will be those rescued by Italian ships. With the exception of the most vulnerable, including pregnant women.
Two so-called “reception” centers will be built at Italy’s expense and will be under its jurisdiction for asylum or repatriation application procedures. They should be operational from next spring and able to manage an annual flow of 36,000 migrants.
Edi Rama thus obtained even stronger support from Giorgia Meloni for Albania’s accession to the European Union, knowing that this Balkan country has been officially recognized as a candidate since June 2014. The main opposition force, the Party Democrat, immediately reacted by describing this agreement as “ dangerous blunder “.
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