Italy has opened the first of two planned migrant processing centers in Albania, beginning the first migrant outsourcing initiative in Europe. The center, located in the northern Albanian port of Shengjin, will house up to 3,000 migrants per month who are collected while sailing to Italy from Africa. A second center, planned for a former air force base in Gjader, is experiencing delays in its opening.
Only migrants who are found by Italian authorities in international waters will be eligible for the program.
Fabrizio Bucci, Italy’s ambassador to Albania, emphasized that Italian and European Union (EU) legislation would govern the centers, drawing parallels to having an Italian center located within Albania.
The bilateral agreement signed between the Italian and Albanian prime ministers will last five years, with the possibility of extension contingent on its success in reducing Italy’s migration burden and deterring migration attempts.
This year, Italy has seen approximately 31,000 migrant arrivals by sea, a reduction from the same period last year. In 2023, over 157,000 migrants arrived in Italy.
Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who campaigned on stricter migration policies, has made the Albania plan a central part of her so-far failed immigration strategy. Last year Meloni even stated that Europe and Italy “need” migrants, setting off alarm bells among her populist voters.
Support for the Albania plan is evident among some EU member states; a letter from 15 EU countries, spearheaded by Denmark, endorsed the outsourcing of migration management.
Such measures have drawn comparisons to the Britain’s previous proposal to transfer asylum seekers to Rwanda. This was immediately scrapped by the new Labour government last month, costing taxpayers millions of pounds. However, Australia has operated offshore migrant centers for years, slashing illegal sea voyages to their territory to almost zero.