Italy’s Meloni to visit migrant centers in Albania

Edi Rama and Giorgia Meloni, Palazzo Chigi, Rome, Italy, Dec. 16, 2023. (Reuters)

• PM Rama defended the deal, saying Albania — which is seeking to join the EU — was ‘showing solidarity over the demographic problem facing Europe’
• International Rescue Committee NGO condemned the agreement as ‘dehumanizing,’ while Amnesty described it as ‘illegal and unenforceable’

TIRANA: Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni will travel to Albania on Wednesday to visit migrant centers to be run by Italy, her office said, just days before European elections.
Under a controversial deal between Rome and Tirana, Albania has agreed to take in asylum seekers plucked from the seas off Italy, register them at a center on the Adriatic Sea and then house them at another center inland while their claims are processed.
Meloni’s hard-right government had hoped to have the project up and running before European Union-wide elections on June 6-9 to bolster her claim to be tough on illegal migration.
The Italian leader, who heads the post-fascist Brothers of Italy party, will meet Albanian counterpart Edi Rama and discuss the holding centers for migrants.
Her office confirmed on Monday she would conduct a joint visit with Rama to the “areas envisioned” under the migrant deal signed with Albania in November 2023.
Her visit coincides with the Italian cultural week in Albania.
Authorities in the Albanian port city of Shenjin said at the weekend that the migrant holding center there had been completed.
The asylum claims processing center in Gjader is still unfinished, however, and no delivery date has been announced.
The centers, to be managed by Italy, can hold a maximum of 3,000 asylum seekers at any one time.
Italy will pay to build the centers and foot the bill for expenses relating to security and medical care, at a cost estimated at between 650 to 750 million euros ($700-800 million) over the first five years.
In an interview aired on Italian television on Sunday evening, Rama defended the deal, saying Albania — which is seeking to join the 27-nation EU — was “showing solidarity over the demographic problem facing Europe today.”
The International Rescue Committee NGO has condemned the agreement as “dehumanizing,” while Amnesty International described it as “illegal and unenforceable.”