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Ship with 100 migrants from Italy arrives in Shëngjin on Wednesday

Politiko 2025-04-08 18:09:25

Ship with 100 migrants from Italy arrives in Shëngjin on Wednesday
The next ship carrying around 100 migrants deported from Italy is expected to arrive at the Port of Shëngjin on Wednesday, who will be placed in the Gjadri camp. This is the third time that such migrants have been transferred to Albania, under the agreement signed between Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama in 2023.

Unlike the beginning of the project, where the centers in Shëngjin and Gjadra were intended to house migrants awaiting asylum, the Italian government has changed their purpose. According to a recent statement by the Italian Interior Minister, Matteo Piantedosi, the migrants to be sent to Albania will be deportees, who do not have the right to reside in Italy.

In an interview given on March 25, 2025, Piantedosi announced that the new objective is to transform these structures into Repatriation Detention Centers (CPR), with a stay of up to 18 months. According to him, this policy will strengthen the process of returning irregular migrants to their countries of origin.

Despite efforts to implement the agreement, the project has not been without legal obstacles. In October and November of last year, Italian courts blocked the transfer of asylum seekers to Albania due to uncertainty regarding countries of origin and the lack of a unified list of safe countries within the EU. However, on December 30, 2024, the Court of Cassation in Italy ruled in favor of the Meloni government, confirming that the assessment of safe or unsafe countries remains the exclusive competence of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the government cabinet.

Meanwhile, the agreement continues to be the subject of public debate. The Italian opposition has called the project costly and impractical, stressing that 800 million euros over 5 years is an unjustifiable cost for a limited number of people, while international human rights organizations have criticized it as an attempt to shift the burden of the migrant crisis to countries with weaker legal and economic systems.

However, the European Commission and some EU leaders have expressed interest in this model, considering it an opportunity for managing immigration outside the borders of the European Union.

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