Rome, Nov. 7, (dpa/GNA) – The Italian government is planning to open two reception centres for migrants in Albania to house irregular migrants who come across the Mediterranean from North Africa and into Europe.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her Albanian counterpart Edi Rama signed a letter to this effect in Rome on Monday.
The reception centres will examine asylum applications and, if necessary, facilitate faster returns to the migrants’ home country.
The agreement is aimed exclusively at migrants who travel to Italy on boats across the central Mediterranean, Meloni told Italian newspaper Il Messaggero on Tuesday.
After being rescued at sea, they are to be brought to the Albanian centres immediately, she said.
“The centres will be able to take in up to 3,000 migrants at a time,” she said. The agreement does not apply to minors and pregnant women.
The centres are to be managed by Italy and will be operational as early as next year. Albania will be involved in monitoring the centres, which are to be located in the northern Albanian towns of Shëngjin and Gjader.
According to Meloni, the agreement between Italy and Albania could serve as a model for similar agreements with other countries.
“In fact, I believe that it could become a model for cooperation between EU and non-EU countries in managing migration flows,” Meloni said in the interview.
The Italian opposition, on the other hand, criticized the agreement. It appears to violate international and European law, said Elly Schlein, a lawmaker for the Social Democrats.
For more than a year now, the far-right Fratelli d’Italia under Meloni has been in government together with the conservative Forza Italia party and Matteo Salvini’s right-wing populist Lega.
According to the Interior Ministry in Rome, more than 144,700 people have arrived on boats this year, as of November 3. In the same period last year, the figure was about 87,300.
Members of Albania’s opposition party reacted sharply to the deal with Rome.
“Edi Rama is turning Albania into the largest illegal refugee camp in Europe from one day to the next,” wrote Belind Kellici, a member of the executive committee of the opposition Democratic Party, on Facebook, adding he felt the decision was made “without parliamentary discussion, without political consensus,” and amounted to a “betrayal of Albania.”
Far-right and populist parties in Europe have repeatedly slammed the EU for failing to tackle irregular migration.
The issue had created tension within Germany’s coalition government as well, which includes the traditionally pro-migrant Greens. Germany is one of the main destinations sought out by migrants arriving in Europe.
GNA