Meloni tries again: 40 migrants arrive in Albania with repatriation orders

BarcelonaA group of 40 migrants denied asylum by Italy arrived in Albania this Friday, where they will be held pending repatriation to their countries of origin, according to local press reports. This is the fourth attempt by Giorgia Meloni's government. after the courts overturned the previous transfersThe migrants have disembarked at the port of Shëngjin and will be transferred to the Gjadër center, one of the detention facilities built by Italy in the Balkan country as part of a controversial agreement between Rome and Tirana designed to outsource the reception of migrants rescued in the Mediterranean, with the idea that not even...

Following various judicial setbacks, on March 28, the Italian government made, by decree, a legal change to the protocol to allow people who were already detained in Italy to be sent to the so-called repatriation stay centers (CPRs): migrants who have been served with a deportation order and are subject to expulsion. This is the case of the 40 people transferred to Albania this Friday, who were in the CPR in Brindisi. They are the first who have not arrived at Albanian centers directly after being intercepted at sea. According to Italian media, they come from countries such as Algeria, Tunisia, and Bangladesh.

According to the agreement signed at the end of 2023, the Albanian centers are considered extraterritorial and fall under Italian jurisdiction. With the legal change two weeks ago, the Gjadër camp was now classified as another CPR in the country's reception network, but it remains to be seen whether the Italian justice system will accept this measure. According to this regulation, migrants who have arrived in Albania can remain in Gjadër for up to 18 months while they wait for the green light from their countries of origin to be repatriated, something that often never happens.

The first shipment took place in October last year, but the justice system forced the migrants to be returned to Italy, arguing that they could not be returned to their countries of origin, Bangladesh and Egypt, because they cannot be considered sufficiently safe. A month later, the Court of Rome asked the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) to rule on the matter, and it is expected to do so in June.

The project to outsource border control in Albania was expected to accommodate up to 36,000 migrants each year, at a cost of around €800 million over five years for Italy, which assumes the costs of maintaining and caring for the migrants, while the Balkan country.