Offshore processing centres, under construction in Albania. (Photo by Olsi Shehu/Anadolu via Getty … [+] Images)
Anadolu via Getty Images
The Italian government has reportedly begun withdrawing staff from offshore asylum processing centers in Albania, after several attempts to process people’s applications there were struck down by Italian courts. The multi-million dollar scheme behind the centers is in question, with a hearing in December to decide whether Italy’s underlying justification for the scheme is valid.
The Albania scheme has been a number of years in the making. The brainchild of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s cabinet, it aims to intercept people trying to reach Europe via sea – the majority of whom arrive on Italian shores – and send them to specially-built centers in Albania to have their asylum claims processed. The point of the scheme is to keep people out of Italy and Europe, and by having them not actually set foot on Italian territory, in theory it allows authorities to side-step EU asylum and human rights legislation, making it easier to deport people back to their countries of origin.
The scheme launched in October, with Meloni’s government stating it could process thousands of asylum seekers per month, at a cost of around $720 million over five years. It immediately hit roadblocks. The first groups of asylum seekers sent to Albania – several dozen people mostly from Bangladesh and Egypt – were swiftly sent back to Italy after Italian judges declared they could not be processed offshore.
The issue is whether or not Italy is allowed to decide which countries are safe enough to send people back to. While Italy maintains its own list of ‘safe’ countries, a European Court of Justice ruling stands in the way of that, and Italian judges currently have the discretion to decide for themselves.
So far no person has been processed in Albania under this scheme and the legal challenges appear existential to it continuing at all, despite the Italian government doing its best to get around the ‘safe country’ obstacle. A ruling from Italy’s highest court is expected in early December to decide whether or not Italian judges will continue to hold the discretion they have now.
In the meantime, it has been reported that staff are being withdrawn from the processing centers in Albania, though the Italian government insists the scheme remains in operation. A handful of staff are expected to remain in the centers. It is not clear what will happen to the centers – not to mention the $720 million dollars already pledged – if the scheme is permanently blocked by legal challenge.
Italy’s scheme is seen by many in the EU as a sort of pilot project to see if offshore processing is a possible avenue for governments to limit the amount of people arriving irregularly. The United Kingdom attempted a similar scheme, also costing hundreds of millions of dollars, but that was scrapped by the incoming Labor government in July before it had processed a single person. Nonetheless, the U.K.’s Prime Minister has expressed interest in Italy’s scheme and offshore processing schemes are currently being considered by Germany and reportedly by the European Commission itself.
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Publish date : 2024-11-25 23:19:00
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