The Italian government officially opened two centres in Albania where it planned to process male migrants intercepted in international waters, according to AP News.
The opening was delayed for several months due to crumbling soil at one centre needing repair. Italian Ambassador to Albania Fabrizio Bucci has said that both centres are now ready to receive migrants.
As of today, the two centers are ready and operational.
Under a five-year agreement signed last November by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her Albanian counterpart Edi Rama, up to 3,000 migrants picked up monthly by the Italian Coast Guard in international waters would be sheltered in Albania. They will first be checked aboard the ships that rescue them and then sent to Albania for further screening.
The two centres will cost Italy 670 million euros ($730 million) over five years. The facilities will be run by Italy and under Italian jurisdiction, with Albanian guards providing external security.
An area in Shengjin, 66 kilometres (40 miles) northwest of the capital Tirana, will be used to screen new arrivals. Residential buildings, a small hospital, a detention centre and offices at the port are surrounded by a five-metre (16-foot) high metal fence topped with barbed wire.
Another centre, about 22 kilometres (14 miles) east of the former military airport at Gjader, will house migrants while their asylum claims are processed.
How centres are organised
Only adult males will be held in the centres, whereas vulnerable categories such as women, children, the elderly, the sick or victims of torture will be housed in Italy. Families will also not be separated.
While in Albania, migrants will retain their right under international and European Union law to apply for asylum in Italy and have their applications processed there. The processing of each application is expected to take about a month.
The agreement was endorsed by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as an example of “out-of-box thinking” in dealing with migration to the European Union. However, human rights groups criticised it as setting a dangerous precedent.
Rama said other countries would not be able to have such centres in Albania. For Italy, they are seen as an expression of gratitude to the tens of thousands of Albanians it welcomed after the fall of the communist government in 1991.
Meloni called the agreement with Albania an innovative solution to a problem that plagued the EU for years.
