Rome, Apr. 11, (dpa/GNA) – Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing government has sent a first group of rejected asylum seekers to a camp in Albania following the initial failure of its controversial asylum plans.

An Italian navy ship carrying 40 people docked on Friday in the port of Shëngjin in the afternoon, according to the news agency ANSA.

The men are now expected to remain in a camp in Albania until they are deported.

Originally, Italian officials were supposed to process the asylum applications of the migrants, who crossed the Mediterranean Sea to arrive in Italy, in fast-track procedures at camps in Shëngjin and Gjadër before the migrants even set foot on Italian soil.

But Meloni’s government was handed multiple court rejections of that plan so that the two expensive camps had stood empty for months. Now, they are housing asylum seekers whose applications have been rejected in Italy.

The “Albania model” is a flagship project of the right-wing coalition government. After the court setbacks, Meloni’s government passed a decree last month allowing the camps to also house asylum seekers who had already been in Italy. Normally, such migrants are held in repatriation centres in Italy until their deportation, not abroad.

Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi described the camp in Gjadër as “another repatriation centre, just outside Italian territory.” In Italy, such centres are used to house migrants without regular residency status.

Meloni’s government is still committed to its original “Albania model,” which the European Court of Justice is currently reviewing to see whether it complies with European law.

The key issue is which countries can be classified as safe countries of origin for the purpose of carrying out deportations.

GNA

PDC