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MIGRANT CRISIS

Italy to send migrants to reception centres in Albania

Italy on Monday announced plans to send migrants to Albania, in a move critics called "a blatant violation of international law".

Published: 7 November 2023 11:27 CET
Italy on Monday unveiled a controversial plan to send migrants to Albania.
Italy on Monday unveiled a controversial plan to send migrants to Albania. Photo by Giovanni ISOLINO / AFP.

Tens of thousands of migrants rescued in the Mediterranean will be sent to purpose-built centres in Albania while Italy examines their asylum requests, the Italian government announced Monday.

The deal with Albania, which is not part of the European Union, follows a meeting in Rome between Albania’s Prime Minister Edi Rama and Italy’s far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who won elections last year after
vowing to stop illegal migration to Italy.

Two structures able to accommodate up to 3,000 people at a time will be set up for “speedy processing of asylum applications or possible repatriation” of “migrants saved at sea”, Meloni’s office said in a statement.

READ ALSO: EXPLAINED: What’s behind Italy’s soaring number of migrant arrivals?

The centres will be built, at Italy’s expense, at the port of Shengjin and the Gjader area in northwest Albania, and will be designed to accommodate some 39,000 people a year, it said.

Minors, pregnant women and “vulnerable people” will not be sent to the centres, Meloni told reporters following her meeting with Rama.

Italy will have legal jurisdiction over the centres, which are expected to be up and running “by spring 2024”, her office said.

The Shengjin centre will be used to identify and screen new arrivals, while migrants destined for repatriation will be sent on to Gjader.

In the statement announcing the deal, Rome emphasised the importance of Italy’s trade with Albania, and offered its support for that country’s hopes of joining the EU.

Despite Meloni’s vows to stop boat crossings from North Africa to Italy, over 145,000 people have landed on its shores so far this year, compared to 88,000 people in the same period last year, official data shows.

Opposition lawmaker and Green party leader Angelo Bonelli said the deal was a “blatant violation of conventions and international law”.

READ ALSO: Italian PM Meloni blasts judge who rejected ‘unconstitutional’ anti-migrant law

The government was “outsourcing its responsibilities, with the risk of creating detention camps that may not ensure adequate standards of reception and respect for human dignity”, he said in a note.

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MIGRANT CRISIS

Charity warns Italy’s ban on migrant rescue planes risks lives

A migrant rescue charity warned on Thursday that a new Italian ban on using surveillance planes to spot migrant boats in distress in the Mediterranean could endanger lives.

Published: 9 May 2024 15:14 CEST
Charity warns Italy's ban on migrant rescue planes risks lives

Italy’s civil aviation authority Enac issued orders in the past week saying charities will have their planes seized if they carry out “search and rescue” activities from airports in Sicily.

The move follows restrictions placed by far-right premier Giorgia Meloni’s government on charity rescue ships as it attempts to fulfil its election pledges to curb arrivals, which soared to around 158,000 last year.

Nearly 2,500 people are known to have died in 2023 trying to cross the central Mediterranean, a 75 percent increase on the previous year, according to the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM).

READ ALSO: What’s behind Italy’s soaring number of migrant arrivals?

“This is definitely another attempt to criminalise search and rescue,” Giulia Messmer, spokesperson for the German charity Sea Watch, told AFP.

Sea Watch has two planes, the Seabird 1 and 2, but if they “are not able to fly anymore”, the planes “cannot communicate spotted distress cases” to authorities and ships able to carry out rescues, she said.

Enac says it is up to the coastguard, not charities, to perform search and rescue operations. The ban applies to the airports of Palermo and Trapani in Sicily, as well as the islands of Lampedusa and Pantelleria.

IN NUMBERS: Five graphs to understand migration to Italy

The IOM told AFP that while it was “waiting to understand its actual implementation, we are concerned that this decision may hinder life-saving efforts”.

Sea Watch warned the planes do not only play a vital role in spotting boats at risk of sinking, they also document the behaviour of the Libyan coastguard, often accused of violence towards migrants.

‘Political propaganda’

Immigration lawyer Fulvio Vassallo Paleologo told AFP the order issued by Enac was based on “a partial and contradictory reconstruction of national and international laws governing search and rescues”.

It was a political move, “a warning, during the election campaign” for the European Elections, he said.

Sea Watch on Twitter also called the move “an act of cowardice and cynicism… for political propaganda”.

Enac answers to Transport Minister Matteo Salvini, head of the anti-immigrant League party.

READ ALSO: ‘More will drown’: Italy accused of breaking international law on migrant rescues

Messmer, 28, said the Seabird 2 flew on Wednesday from Lampedusa despite the ban and the charity “plans to continue flying in the coming days”.

There were no issues getting the necessary authorisation from the airport to take off and land, she said.

Meloni, leader of the far-right Brothers of Italy party, was elected to office in 2022 promising to stop migrant boats arriving from North Africa.

Her government has brought in a law obliging charity ships to stage only one rescue at a time and they are often assigned ports in Italy’s distant north, making missions longer and more expensive.

Rome has also signed a controversial deal with Albania by which migrants from countries considered to be safe will be intercepted at sea and taken straight to Italian-run centres in Albania.

Critics say the deal is expensive and will prove ineffective because the two centres will only be able to hold a maximum of 3,000 people at a time and asylum applications are notorious slow.

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