Under an agreement announced this week under which Italy will build two camps to receive and hold migrants, Albania will hold no more than 3,000 migrants at a time, Reuters reports.
The Italo-Albanian scheme would be the first example of a non-EU country accepting migrants on behalf of an EU country, and is also part of a bloc-wide campaign against illegal immigration. However, Amnesty International and several other human rights groups have criticised the scheme.
An Italo-Albanian protocol states:
Parties agree that the total number of migrants present at the same time on Albanian territory cannot be more than 3,000.
The figure compares with more than 145,000 sea migrants arriving in Italy this year, a sharp increase from 2022 that the right-wing government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is seeking to curb.
Meloni said up to 36,000 migrants a year could pass through Albanian camps, but reaching that target depends on how quickly Italy can process asylum claims. Prime Minister noted the goal was to process cases within 28 days, but experts said that despite government efforts to streamline them, procedures remained bogged down by bureaucracy.
Over the past year, Italy repatriated just under 4,000 people. Experts note that repatriation of failed applicants is difficult due to the lack of agreements on the return of migrants with their home countries.
The camps are due to open in spring 2024 and will operate under Italian jurisdiction. The protocol stipulates that Italy will protect Albania from any costs associated with legal action against the initiative.
Pregnant women, minors and other vulnerable people would not be sent to Albania, Meloni said, but it was unclear whether this could lead to adult men being separated from the rest of their families.
