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The prestigious human rights organization criticizes the Rama-Meloni pact: A cruel farce

Politiko 2024-06-06 17:04:24

The prestigious human rights organization criticizes the Rama-Meloni pact: A

The prestigious international organization Human Rights Watch criticized Prime Minister Edi Rama's agreement with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy as abusive and contrary to international law.

The organization describes the agreement between Italy and Albania as a costly and cruel farce.

Full text:

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's visit to Albania's Shengjin port on June 5 underscores the folly of Italy's scheme to send migrants and asylum seekers caught in the Mediterranean to Albania. Amid spiraling costs, delays and serious human rights concerns, the plan is emerging as an example of how not to manage migration.

The scheme, agreed last November, commits Italy to setting up a processing center in the port of Shengjin, plus a reception center for asylum seekers with 880 beds, as well as a detention center with 144 beds. The reception and detention centers will be in Gjadër municipality.

Italy says it will send only adult men from countries it designates as "safe" to Albania to undergo an expedited asylum procedure, followed by swift deportation for those denied protection. But some countries so designated are not "safe" for everyone: there are documented cases of torture and other serious human rights violations in Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria and Cameroon, for example.

How Italy will guarantee a fair asylum procedure and judicial review of detention in another country remains a mystery.

Meloni now says the centers, originally scheduled to become operational in May, will be ready by August. Construction costs have risen by more than €25 million, while the overall budget for running the scheme over the next five years, according to the government, is €670 million (others say it will cost up to €850 million).

Italy's government recently opened a bid for private contractors outlining how they plan to implement the deal. It is looking for a private vessel with room for 300 people (200 expatriates and 100 staff) to take people directly from Italian state ships at sea, south of the Italian island of Lampedusa. Then they will be transferred to Albania. The operating budget for three months, starting from mid-September, is 13.5 million euros. It remains unclear how, where and by whom the assessments will be made to determine who among those rescued or intercepted should be sent to Albania.

Far from illustrating "a model to follow", the visit showed once again that Meloni's government does not have a reasonable or humane approach to migration. The Italy-Albania deal is costly, puts people's rights at risk and is likely to do little to stop people crossing the Mediterranean by boat. It's a bad idea that just keeps getting worse.