A total of 49 migrants intercepted at sea were transported today by an Italian military ship to detention and expulsion centers in Albania, which were built by the Italian authorities, according to international media.
The Italian navy patrol boat 'Cassiopea' arrived at the Albanian port of Shëngjin at 7:45 am local time (6:45 am in Lisbon), a local photographer from the EPA agency confirmed to the EFE news agency.
The Italian Interior Ministry announced that these people will now be subject to "procedures of reception, detention and evaluation of individual cases", following the protocols of the agreement reached with the Albanian Prime Minister, the Social Democrat Edi Rama. The 49 migrants are mostly from Bangladesh, Egypt, Ivory Coast and Gambia.
This is the third attempt by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's government to implement its controversial plan to detain illegal immigrants who are intercepted at sea on their way to Italy in Albania.
At the Shëngjin center, asylum seekers will be identified and subjected to a rigorous medical examination, since if vulnerable conditions are detected, they will be redirected to Italy, as has already happened in some cases in the two previous transfers to Albania, which were held in October.
The first two attempts also failed because the Italian courts did not approve the transfers, arguing that neither Egypt nor Bangladesh were completely safe countries and requested the intervention of the Court of Justice of the European Union (EU).
Since then, the centers have been empty, monitored and managed by an ever-shrinking team, which has led to strong criticism of the Italian government over the spending involved in this operation.
The Italian Supreme Court later noted that it is up to the government to determine which countries are safe and that a judge cannot systematically invalidate the detention of migrants, having to present arguments in specific cases not to allow their return to Albania.
After assessing their cases, the migrants will be sent to the Gjader detention center, which has a capacity of 3,000 people per month and is surrounded by a seven-meter-high fence, covered with wire and equipped with surveillance cameras.
Italy financed the construction of the center, located on a former air base built during the communist dictatorship in Albania. The Italian government administers the center and Albanian police are limited to monitoring its outer perimeter.
