Italy wants to house migrants in a closed camp in Albania while their asylum applications are being processed. The plan has hit legal roadblocks, and Rome is trying to salvage the project. Satellite images provide insights into the controversial facility.
Italy’s newly opened facility for asylum-seekers is located just 180 kilometers from the Italian coast in northern Albania. The center is meant to accommodate refugees who have been picked up by the Italian coast guard in international waters while their asylum applications are processed.
In theory, the process works as follows. Migrants are taken by boat to the Albanian mainland in Shengjin and transferred to a cordoned-off port area. Here, their personal details, country of origin and state of health are recorded. Shortly afterward, they are taken a few kilometers inland to Gjader, where Italian officials in a reception center examine their asylum applications in a fast-track procedure.
Italy is the first country in the European Union to test the so-called third country model. Under this model, refugees are to be accommodated in a third country outside the EU – in this case Albania – where their asylum applications are to be examined. If the Italian authorities approve an application, the person will be allowed to travel to Italy. Otherwise, they will be taken to their home country or a safe third country.
First failure of the pilot project
However, the experiment is not going as planned. Last week, 16 migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean to Italy were picked up by an Italian naval vessel and taken to Albania for the first time.
Four of them were brought back to Italy after their arrival because they were minors or suffering from serious health problems. Shortly afterward, a court in Rome declared the detention of the remaining 12 migrants in the center outside the EU to be legally impermissible.
The court ruled that under current law, only migrants from so-called safe third countries may be detained in the Albanian facility. This is because EU law provides for an accelerated border procedure for people with little prospect of gaining asylum, which allows them to be detained. It is expected that these cases will be resolved quickly, and that repatriations can be organized swiftly. For all other migrants, there is no legal basis for holding them in detention-like conditions.
However, the center in northern Albania is a closed camp. Migrants housed there do not have the right to freely enter or leave the premises. The facility falls under Italian jurisdiction, and is operated by Italian staff. Albanian authorities are responsible only for the external surveillance of the centers.
In last week’s case, the Italian court refused to classify the countries of origin of the other 12 migrants – Egypt and Bangladesh – as safe countries. Unlike Italy, the EU assesses these countries as «not safe.» And in this case, European law takes precedence. The court thus ruled that the 12 migrants had to undergo a regular asylum procedure in Italy.
Last Saturday afternoon, the 12 migrants were brought to Italy on an Italian coast guard ship. A final decision will now be made on their asylum applications there. As long as these procedures are ongoing, the men will be allowed to remain in Italy – which is exactly what Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni wanted to prevent when she signed the asylum agreement with Albania’s Prime Minister Edi Rama in Rome in November 2023.
Considerable hurdles before the opening
This new approach to migration policy is proving far more difficult than expected. Even the original opening date at the end of May ultimately proved to be unrealistic, despite the fact that around 5,000 square meters were available for the center on the site of a former military base in Gjader.
Satellite images show that the first construction activities did not begin until the end of March 2024. The opening was delayed several times due to technical and organizational difficulties. After a delay of five months, the center was finally put into operation in October.
The initial plan was to accommodate up to 36,000 people per year in the facility in Albania. However, the center in Gjader is currently empty again. The Italian government has adopted a new legal decree that Meloni and her allies hope will provide a legal basis for implementing the Albania model effectively. It remains to be seen whether these changes will shield the approach from further legal challenges.
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Publish date : 2024-10-25 00:30:00
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