Significant delay

Migration: Meloni’s Albania pact causes problems

Meloni has promised to combat the flow of migrants to Italy.

(Bild: AFP/Tiziana FABI)

The plans of Italy's right-wing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to build reception centers for boat refugees outside the EU in Albania have been delayed - indefinitely.

The opening, originally planned for May 20 at the latest, has been postponed due to planning difficulties, as confirmed by the government in Rome on Wednesday. No new date has been set.

According to earlier information from the daily newspaper "La Repubblica", the camps with space for up to 36,000 people per year can now be opened in November at the earliest. The paper based this on information from the Ministry of Defense. This has not been confirmed.

Is Meloni's election promise wavering?
The relatively poor Mediterranean country of Albania is not a member of the EU, but has been a candidate country for ten years. Italy, on the other hand, is one of the countries particularly affected by the movement of refugees from Africa to Europe via the Mediterranean.

Rama and Meloni signed the agreement last November.

(Bild: AFP/Tiziana FABI)

Meloni - leader of the right-wing party Fratelli d'Italia - took office in the fall of 2022 with the promise of significantly reducing the numbers. Last year, however, almost 158,000 new arrivals were counted - over 50,000 more than in 2022. So far this year, there have been almost 18,000.

Albania pact aims to relieve pressure on Italy
The plan is now to take boat refugees directly to two reception centers in Albania: to the port city of Shengjin on the Adriatic and to Gjader a few kilometers inland. Asylum applications are to be examined in the centers operated by Italy and faster deportations are also to be made possible. The parliaments of both countries have approved the corresponding agreement despite some criticism.

The centers are also expressly not intended for migrants who arrive by boat on Italian shores or are picked up by private aid organizations - but only for those who are taken on board by the Italian authorities in international waters. Italy will bear all "direct and indirect" costs. A total of 675 million euros has been budgeted for the next ten years, 142 million euros of which will be spent this year.