Twelve migrants hosted in an asylum center in Albania since last week boarded a ship for Italy on Saturday, following an Italian court ruling against their detention.
This is a scathing setback for the ultra-conservative government of Giorgia Meloni, who has made the fight against illegal immigration one of its main political warhorses. Sixteen men from Bangladesh and Egypt arrived at the Albanian port of Shengjin on Wednesday, almost a year after Rome and Tirana reached an agreement to establish two centers in Albania from where migrants rescued in the Mediterranean can apply for asylum.
However, shortly after their arrival, four of them were identified as “vulnerable” – two claiming to be minors and two others in need of medical treatment – and were sent back to Italy. The remaining 12 asylum seekers boarded an Italian coast guard vessel, the ‘Guardia Costiera CP 422’, on Saturday morning, which Albanian port authorities say will transport them to Brindisi in the south of Italy.
Signed in November by Ms Meloni and her Albanian counterpart, Edi Rama, the agreement between Rome and Tirana has a duration of five years and concerns adult men intercepted by the Italian navy or coast guard in their search and rescue zone. rescue in international waters.
The procedure provides for a first check on a military ship, before a transfer to a center in northern Albania, at the port of Shengjin, for identification, then to a second center, on a former military base in Gjader.
The Italian court which invalidated the detention of the 12 asylum seekers cited a recent judgment of the European Court of Justice on countries of origin considered “safe” by host countries. The court ruled that under this judgment, the 12 migrants did not meet the criteria for detention in Albania and that they should be returned to Italy.
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