Forty men of various nationalities arrive aboard a ship from the Italian Navy in the northern port of Shengjin in Albania.
Italy has sent 40 asylum seekers who await deportation to Albania, where they will be heroes in the detention centers administered by Italians until they are repatriated to their countries of origin.
The two facilities opened last October as processing centers for possible asylum applicants intercepted in the sea, in an experimental scheme closely observed by the rest of the European Union.
But in an attempt to save an expensive program harassed by legal challenges, the Italian government decided at the end of March that they now serve mainly as repatriation facilities to keep migrants due to be sent back to their countries of origin.
On Friday, 40 men or diverse nationalities arrived aboard a ship from the Italian Navy in the northern port of Shengjin, according to the Italian media.
From there, they will be transferred to a nearby center in Gjader, an old military base surrounded by a high fence under the surveillance of the camera.
It is not clear how long they will remain in Albania. According to Italian law, asylum seekers whose residence statements have not been successful may be arrested for up to 18 months while waiting for deportation.
The Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni had signed an agreement with her Albanian counterpart Edi Rama to open the two Italian centers administered in Albania in November 2023.
But Albania’s deportation scheme had been suspended after the Italian courts repeatedly annulled the transfer of maritime migrants, forcing the government to take them to Italy to evaluate their legal situation.
Facing opposition criticism for legal confusion, Meloni’s conservative coalition last month decided to use Albania as a staging position for people whose asylum offers have already rejected the leg. Stoping the ships was also a promise of Meloni and his extreme right -wing party of the brothers of Italy when they are first in a 2022 election.
Italy has a bad history in the repatriation of irregular immigrants. In 2023, only more than 4,000 were sent home, approximately one third of the number returned by France and Germany, according to official data.
Many more simply ignored their expulsion orders, either remaining in Italy or addressing another European country.
Meloni originally expected the two Albanian camps to process about 36,000 male asylum applicants per year of a government list of safe countries, with the idea of repatriating them quickly after the probable rejection of their requests.
The Government still hopes to return to its original plan and is waiting for a decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union, which could force Italian judges to process new asylum seekers sent to Albania.
