Controversial migrant deal between Albania and Italy is moving forward

An Albanian court on Monday gave the green light to a deal that would allow Italy to send migrants rescued by Italian ships in the Mediterranean to detention centers in Albania while their asylum claims are processed.

The deal is part of the Italian government's multi-pronged efforts to curb migration, especially Mediterranean crossings, sending the message that many undocumented migrants will not be allowed into Italy directly, even temporarily .

The agreement was signed by the leaders of the two countries in November but was challenged by opposition lawmakers in Albania, who argued that it violated the country's constitution.

On Monday, the Albanian Constitutional Court ruled differently, paving the way for the deal to be approved by parliament, where Prime Minister Edi Rama's Socialist Party has 75 of the 140 seats.

In Italy, the agreement has already been approved by the House of Representatives and sent to the Senate, where right-wing political allies of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni maintain a controlling majority.

Presenting the deal last year, Ms Meloni called it a “model of cooperation between EU and non-EU countries in managing migration flows”, saying it was in a “bold European spirit”.

The deal would allow two centers to be built around Shengjin port that could accommodate up to 3,000 migrants at one time.

In one case, migrants intercepted at sea registered for asylum and argued their case remotely before Italian judges. On the other hand, they waited for responses to the applications, which can often take months. Migrants whose asylum claims are rejected would be expelled to their home countries by Albania.

Children, pregnant women and others labeled as “vulnerable” – including the sick and disabled – would not go to the centers but would instead be taken directly to Italy for processing, the government said.

In return for the Albanian Prime Minister's support on migration, Ms Meloni has said she will do everything in her power to support Albania's accession to the European Union.

More than 157,000 migrants landed on Italian coasts last year, most from Africa or Asia, compared to 105,000 in 2022. according to data from the Ministry of the Interior. Countless migrants die trying to reach safety.

The International Organization for Migration said on Monday said that almost 100 people have “died or disappeared” in the Mediterranean since the beginning of 2024, more than twice the number who died in the same period last year. In 2023, more than 3,000 lives were lost in the Mediterranean Sea, according to the group.

In addition to the agreement reached with Albania, Ms Meloni has also signed agreements with Tunisia and Libya to limit migration. But she has argued that the European Union should share the burden of managing the migrants landing in Italy.

On Monday, Ms. Meloni met with African leaders in Rome to promote economic development in Africa and discourage young people from emigrating.

The deal with Albania is reminiscent of one sought by the British government, under which it would fly asylum seekers to Rwanda before their claims are assessed and pay the costs of their relocation if the migrants remained there. British courts have done so rejected the proposalbut the approach remains a top priority for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

When the deal with Albania was announced in November, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatovic warned of “a worrying European trend towards externalizing asylum responsibilities.”

“Externalization measures significantly increase the risk that refugees, asylum seekers and migrants are exposed to human rights violations,” Ms Mijatović said in a statement. “The shift of responsibility across borders by some states also encourages others to do the same, risking a domino effect that could undermine the European and global system of international protection.”

The deal between Italy and Albania has been approved by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyden called it “an example of out-of-the-box thinking, based on a fair division of responsibilities with third countries.”

But the proposed scheme has been widely criticized by human rights groups.

Some critics have raised legal concerns about Italian jurisdiction in Albania, warning that it would be difficult to ensure that migrants in Albania would have the same rights as if they were in Italy.

Opposition lawmakers in Italy have criticized the estimated costs of building and running the two centers in Albania. Matteo Mauri, a lawmaker with the opposition Democratic party, estimated that the deal would cost Italy 653 million euros — about $700 million — in the first five years because he said it involved a negligible number of migrants.

“Not only is the deal completely useless and of questionable legitimacy under European Union law,” Mr Mauri said, but it is also “immensely expensive.” The money, he said in a telephone interview, could instead be spent in Italy on existing processing centers.

With European elections looming in June, Mr Mauri called the deal an “operation of political propaganda by the prime minister” who has made curbing migration a political cornerstone of her party, the far-right Brothers of Italy.

During hearings in the Italian Senate earlier this month, some experts said the deal could become a model that could be replicated in Libya and Tunisia. Others expressed doubts about the message Italy was sending to Europe.

Stefano Manservisi, professor of Transnational Governance at the Florence-based European University Institute, called the deal a “baroque construction” that created a dual reception system.

“Italy says that immigration should be managed at European level and is now taking part of this problem out of the European debate,” he said. “On the one hand, Italy says it gets little help from the European system, but on the other hand it creates a system that cannot benefit from any European support.”

Fatjona Mejdini contributed reporting from Albania.