Italy strikes deal to set up migrant centres in Albania

Italy will build two centres in Albania to host migrants trying to reach the EU by sea, the prime ministers of the two countries announced on Monday.

Italian premier Giorgia Meloni described the deal as a “European agreement” and “an innovative solution” aimed at curbing a rise in illegal crossings on the Mediterranean Sea. More than 145,000 migrants have reached Italy’s shores from northern Africa since the beginning of 2023, compared with 88,000 people last year.

“Mass illegal immigration is a phenomenon that EU member states cannot tackle alone. Collaboration [with] non-EU states can be decisive,” Meloni said in a joint news conference in Rome, alongside her Albanian counterpart, Edi Rama.

It is the first time an EU country is outsourcing its asylum procedures to a country that is not yet part of the bloc. Albania is in talks to join the EU and has been a Nato member since 2009. The deal echoes the UK’s agreement with Rwanda, which however has been bogged down in legal challenges.

The European Commission said it was aware of the arrangement but that it had not yet received details. “It is important that any such arrangement is in full respect of EU and international law,” a commission spokesperson said.

Brussels in the past has questioned whether schemes for processing asylum claims in non-EU countries are in line with international rules, which stipulate that people seeking protection in another country cannot be sent away without their claim being heard first.

Meloni has repeatedly floated the idea of building reception centres outside Italian and even European borders, suggesting they could be set up in northern Africa. She zeroed in on Albania in August, when she interrupted her holiday in the Puglia region to spend some days meeting Rama in his country.

The construction of the two migrant facilities — where Italian jurisdiction will be applied — will be entirely funded by the Italian state, she said. Migrants rescued at sea by the Italian coast guard would disembark in the port of Shëngjin, in northern Albania. They would first be hosted in reception centre where they would be registered and where they could apply for asylum in Italy.

An expulsion and detention facility will also be built 20km away from the coast, in the settlement of Gjadër. Albanian police guards will be in charge of patrolling both centres.

“If Italy calls, Albania is there,” Rama said. “Lending a hand in this case means helping to manage a situation that everyone sees is difficult for Italy.”

Meloni said Italy expects these centres to be fully operational by spring 2024 and to have the capacity to manage between 36,000 and 39,000 migrants per year. She added that she hoped this agreement could become a “model” for other countries to follow.

The facilities would only host people rescued at sea by Italian law enforcement and not by vessels operated by charity groups, according to a government official. Women, children and migrants in vulnerable conditions will not be brought to Albania but will continue to be disembarked in Italy.

Additional reporting by Laura Dubois in Brussels