GJADER, Albania. Migrants rescued at sea while trying to reach Italy could find themselves transported to Albania from next month while their asylum claims are processed, under a controversial deal that will see the small Balkan country take in thousands of asylum seekers in name of Italy.
speaking during a visit to albania In June, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said the two centers designed to house migrants would be ready to house the first 1,000 people on August 1. But with that day just around the corner, intensive work is still taking place on one of them, casting doubt. whether it will be completely ready in time. Neither Italy nor Albania have indicated when the first migrants are likely to arrive.
The five-year agreement, signed by Meloni and his Albanian counterpart, Edi Rama, from last November, provides for the accommodation of up to 3,000 immigrants each month detained by the Italian coast guard in international waters. They will initially be examined aboard the ships that rescued them, before being sent to Albania for further examination.
The centers will house only adult men, Italy’s ambassador to Albania, Fabrizio Bucci, told The Associated Press. People considered vulnerable (women, children, the elderly and the sick or victims of torture) will be housed in Italy. Families will not be separated either, the ambassador stated. Those sent to Albania will retain their right, under EU and international law, to seek asylum in Italy and have their claims processed there.
Since each application takes about a month to process, the number of people sent to Albania could reach 36,000 in a year. Italy has agreed to welcome those who obtain asylum. Those whose applications are rejected face deportation directly from Albania, the ambassador said.
Backed by the President of the European Commission, Ursula van der Leyen As an example of “outside the box thinking” in addressing the issue of migration to the European Union, the agreement has been criticized by human rights groups as setting a dangerous precedent.
“The International Rescue Committee (IRC) highlights the risks associated with the plan and urges the EU and its member states not to use this dangerous model as a model for their own approaches to asylum and migration,” the humanitarian organization said in a statement dated July 23. statement. Earlier this year, the IRC described the agreement as “expensive, cruel and counterproductive.”
It is not the first time that a country has tried to outsource the accommodation of asylum seekers. New British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has scrapped the previous Conservative government’s much-criticized plan to send some migrants to Rwanda to process their asylum claims. New Minister of the Interior, Yvette Copper He said the £700 million ($904 million) cost of the plan was “the most shocking waste of taxpayers’ money I have ever seen.”
He two centers in Albania will cost Italy 670 million euros ($730 million) over five years. The facilities will be fully managed by Italy and both centers are under Italian jurisdiction, while Albanian guards will provide external security.
One of the centers, in the port of Shengjin, on Albania’s Adriatic coast, has been ready for more than a month. But the other, about 24 kilometers (15 miles) to the east, near a former military airport in Gjader, was still far from finished with just a week left before its planned opening date.
Bucci, the Italian ambassador, said the first delay was due to crumbling soil in the Gjader camp, which needed intervention to consolidate it. Additionally, the July heat wave forced authorities to impose a break during the hottest hours of the day.
“Our primary concern is, and will remain, the absolute safety and security of the workers on site and, eventually, of the migrants who will be housed at Gjader,” Bucci said.
The Associated Press was not allowed access to the camp, but evidence of intensive construction was clear, with two excavators and a tall crane working frantically, digging to prepare for the installation of a perimeter fence around the roughly 50 acres (20 hectares). ). site and moving huge pipes.
The container buildings that will house the camp’s residents were already installed, but at the main entrance there were piles of panels and frames to build more housing units.
The head of the nearby village of Gjader and local residents said work at the center was far from complete.
Far from the controversy sparked by the deal elsewhere, low-income residents of the village – a source of emigration in itself – said they appreciated the center being built in their area. With few local job opportunities, more than two-thirds of Gjader’s population has emigrated to other European countries in the past 30 years, and some locals said they felt an affinity with the migrant center’s potential residents.
“Honoring those in need will make us more numerous, regardless of their race, language or nation,” said Bib Lazri, a 70-year-old resident of Gjader.
The center is also bringing an economic boom to the impoverished rural area.
“People have seen their lives improved. They are looking to get a job. There is movement and liveliness,” said village head Sander Preka. “People are very happy.” His own shop, he said, had seen a 30% increase in turnover in the last month, while some locals rented their houses Immigrant center employees and others found work at the center.
In Shengjin, a 4,000-square-meter (43,000-square-foot) area contains housing units and offices at the port, surrounded by a five-meter (16-foot) high metal fence topped with barbed wire. A sign reads: “Security Level 1.” Journalists were not allowed access.
Meloni and his right-wing allies have long demanded that European countries share a greater migration burden. He has presented the agreement with Albania as an innovative solution to a problem that has plagued the EU for years.
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Llázar Semini on X: https://x.com/lsemini
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