The Italian Navy patrol ship Libra set sail on Monday from the Italian island of Lampedusa with 16 men on board and is expected to reach Albania on Wednesday.
The first group consists of 10 migrants from Bangladesh and six from Egypt, according to a government source speaking to Agence France-Presse.
The relocation of migrants from Italy to Albania is part of a controversial agreement signed at the end of 2023 between Italy’s far-right government and the Albanian government. The agreement establishes two centers in Albania where migrants can apply for asylum in the EU and await the outcome there.
This procedure excludes individuals considered vulnerable by law: minors, women, people with mental health issues, and those who have been victims of torture, sexual violence, or human trafficking.
Italy has thus become the first EU country to “export” migrants to another state. However, it may not be the last. Italy and Hungary have proposed expanding this practice to the EU level by creating “return hubs,” where illegal migrants would be sent to countries outside the EU. This proposal could be discussed at the Union’s summit on October 17-18 in Brussels.
In Hungary’s case, Serbia could potentially be the country accepting the migrants.
Orban: We first screen migrants in Belgrade
As Deutsche Welle reported, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban boasted in June this year that Hungary had already established centers outside its borders where migrants’ asylum requests are reviewed.
“If migrants want to come to Hungary, they must first contact the Hungarian embassy, for example, in Serbia’s capital, Belgrade. All their documents are checked there. Migrants can only enter the country if Hungarian authorities give the green light. If not, they cannot,” Orban explained.
On June 13, the European Court of Justice fined Hungary 200 million euros for failing to comply with the EU’s asylum laws.
Among other things, Hungary had restricted access to the process of international protection and illegally detained asylum seekers in transit zones.
In early October, the Hungarian Prime Minister announced that the country would start sending migrants to Brussels if the European Union insists on the 200-million-euro fine.
“If Brussels persists in its decision to punish us, they will get what they want. We will bring the migrants knocking on our doors to the main square in Brussels,” Orban said, as reported by Politico.
Austria-Serbia agreement
Although Italy is the first country to actually deliver migrants to another nation, it was not the first to come up with this idea.
In September 2019, former Austrian Interior Minister Herbert Kickl said on a show broadcast on the Austrian public service ORF2 that during his tenure, a contract was made with Serbia. This agreement stipulated that people who received a negative response to their asylum requests in Austria, and whose countries refused to take them back, would be sent from Vienna to Serbia.
This news flew under the radar in Austria but resonated loudly in Belgrade, especially among opposition circles.
At the time, the then-leader of Dveri, Boško Obradović, told Deutsche Welle that “the government never asked the Serbian people in elections or via referendum whether this was acceptable to them.”
When asked why the Serbian Progressive Party-led government would accept migrants who were not welcome elsewhere, Obradović replied, “I have the impression that this is part of a concession our government is willing to make to gain the support of Western power centers to stay in power.”
Negotiations conducted
However, the Serbian Ministry of Interior never commented on this matter, and it appears that, ultimately, nothing came of it.
Did this agreement even exist?
Kickl’s parliamentary group said that during his tenure as minister, “appropriate negotiations were conducted at the official level, and an agreement was reached with Serbia to initially accept about 200 people.” These were rejected asylum seekers who had passed through Serbia on their way to Austria. However, they added that they did not know whether the implementation of the agreement continued after Kickl left his ministerial post.
Is there a legal basis for this agreement? The State Union of Serbia and Montenegro signed an agreement with Austria in June 2003 regulating the “return and acceptance of persons with illegal residency.” This agreement is still in effect, with Serbia as the legal successor of the state union. Under this agreement, Austria and Serbia can request the return of third-country nationals or stateless persons from each other “if it is proven or made credible” that they previously resided in or crossed through the other signatory’s territory.
Thus, in theory, Austria could ask Serbia to accept a migrant who is not allowed to remain in Austria, provided it is proven they passed through Serbia via the Balkan route.
How many migrants are in Serbia?
As of July this year, Serbia had 11 reception centers for migrants and six asylum centers. In July, the reception centers in Šid, Dimitrovgrad, and Kikinda were permanently closed, while the operation of the asylum centers in Tutin and Banja Koviljača, as well as the reception centers in Pirot, Bosilegrad, Sombor, Subotica, and Adaševci, was temporarily suspended from August 1 to September 30.
The Serbian Commissariat for Refugees and Migration (KIRS) stated that this was due to “a continuous decrease in the migratory influx to Serbia over a long period, which significantly affected the occupancy rates of asylum and reception centers.”
However, human rights activists believe this is a bad decision. Radoš Đurović, director of the non-governmental Center for the Protection and Assistance of Asylum Seekers, claims that the closure of the reception centers will lead migrants to seek help from smugglers.
“When there’s no accommodation, and you enter the country, the only ones who can help and offer some form of shelter are smugglers. They will charge a lot, and they might exploit or abuse you, hold you hostage. This happens outside the radar of institutions, outside the system,” Đurović told RFE/RL.
According to the Serbian Commissariat for Refugees and Migration (KIRS), 107,374 migrants passed through Serbia in 2023. The KIRS website states that this number is about 12% lower compared to 2022.
“Migration should not be seen as something negative happening in society; it’s only important to manage it properly,” said the Commissioner for Refugees and Migration, Nataša Stanisavljević, in January.
She mentioned that 2,700 people are residing in asylum and reception centers across the country.
(Vreme, 15.10.2024)
Počeo „izvoz“ migranata iz Italije u Albaniju: Da li je Srbija naredni „domaćin“?
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Publish date : 2024-10-15 07:27:00
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