Signed in 2023, the agreement entered into force this Monday, October 14. Supported by ultraconservative Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, it provides for the creation of two centers in Albania, from where migrants can apply for asylum in Italy. But for Rome, people from countries considered “safe” must be quickly repatriated. It closely resembles the agreement on detention camps that the United Kingdom wanted to put in place with Rwanda, since abandoned. L’Express takes a look at the main measures of this agreement, denounced by some as contrary to European law.
Italy has for many years been at the forefront of migrant arrivals in Europe, despite intense efforts to distribute asylum seekers within the European Union (EU). Giorgia Meloni, who promised during her election in 2022 to put an end to migrant arrivals by sea, signed an agreement with her Albanian counterpart Edi Rama last November providing for the sending of migrants to Albania. The agreement is valid for a period of five years and automatically renewable. By transferring migrants to a non-EU country, Giorgia Meloni hopes to create a deterrent effect and reduce the number of landings in Italy, which in 2023 amounted to around 158,000.
65 million euros for detention centers
Concretely, migrants intercepted by the Italian Navy or Coast Guard in international waters within the Italian search and rescue zone will be transferred to a military vessel for an initial check. People considered vulnerable by law – minors, women, people with mental disorders, who have been victims of torture, sexual violence or human trafficking – will be sent to Italy. The others will be taken to a center in northern Albania, at the port of Shengjin, to be identified. Once registered, these men will be taken to a second center located in a former military base in Gjader, while they wait for their asylum application to be processed.
The Italian government has allocated 65 million euros for the construction of the centers, double the planned budget. From 2025, operating costs would amount to around 160 million euros per year, according to the Ministry of the Interior.
Asylum hearings by videoconference
The Gjader center will be able to accommodate up to 880 asylum seekers. The migrants will be housed in rooms of around 12m², in prefabricated buildings surrounded by high walls and monitored by the police. A building with 144 places will be intended for those whose asylum request has been refused and who risk repatriation. On site, a prison can accommodate up to 20 people. More than 300 Italian soldiers, doctors and judges are involved in this system, according to the Italian ambassador in Tirana. Ten giant screens have been installed in a court in Rome to allow judges to supervise hearings of asylum seekers to be held in Albania. Migrants will also communicate with their lawyers by videoconference.
Asylum applications must be approved or rejected within 28 days. People who are still waiting for a decision after this deadline will be sent to Italy. However, this deadline seems difficult to meet given the slowness of Italian administrative procedures, regularly singled out for their inefficiency.
Risk of human rights violations
The Italian government wants to quickly repatriate the majority of migrants. To do this, it recently increased the number of countries of origin considered “safe” to 22. Critics of this list point out that it includes all the migrants’ countries of origin, from Bangladesh to Tunisia. Rome considers that it can designate a country as “safe” even if certain parts of its territory are not. The Court of Justice of the European Union considers that EU member states can only designate countries as “safe” as a whole.
The agreement signed between Albania and Italy raises other problems, according to its critics who believe that judging at sea whether a person is vulnerable or not risks leading to human rights violations. Others question whether Albania will provide sufficient protection to asylum seekers, even though Rome has assured that the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) will be there as an observer for the first months.