Italys government formally opened two new migrant centres in Albania where refugees will be sent after being intercepted in the Med under a plan by Melonis hard right government.
Italian Ambassador to Albania Fabrizio Bucci said the two centers are ready to process the migrants, but could not say when the first ones would arrive.
As of today, the two centers are ready and operational, Bucci told journalists at the port of Shengjin on Albanias Adriatic coast where the migrants will land.
The centers have capacity to accommodate up to 400 illegal migrants as a start, expected to increase to 880 in a few weeks, according to Italian officials, speaking off the record.
The two controversial facilities will cost Italy around £560.7million over five years, will be run by Italy, and are under Italian jurisdiction, while Albanian guards will provide external security.
This aerial photo shows the site of a recently built Italian-run migrant centre at the port of Shengjin, Albania, on October 11
The centres will be used to hold male migrants after they are processed following being intercepted in the Med
The deal, signed last November by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Albanian counterpart Edi Rama, was sharply criticised by rights groups
An Italian Coast Guard vessel carrying migrants rescued at sea passes between tourist boats, on Sicilian island of Lampedusa, Italy, September 18, 2023
The number of people reaching Italy along the central Mediterranean migration route from North Africa has fallen by 61 per cent in 2024 from 2023.
According to the Italian Interior Ministry, as of October 11, 52,425 migrants have arrived in Italy by sea this year, compared to 138,947 by the same date last year.
Under a five-year deal signed last November by Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni and her Albanian counterpart, Edi Rama, up to 3,000 migrants picked up by the Italian coast guard in international waters each month will be sheltered in Albania.
They will be screened initially on board the ships that rescue them before being sent to Albania for further screening.
The first center, an area in Shengjin, 66km northwest of the capital, Tirana, will be used for screening newcomers.
Housing units, a small hospital, a detention center and offices at the port are surrounded by a metal fence 16ft high and topped with barbed wire.
The other center, about 22km to its east near a former military airport in Gjader, will accommodate migrants during the processing of their asylum requests in a roughly 17-acre site.
The ambassador said that Gjader was the challenge which caused all the delay.
The centers will only house adult men, while vulnerable people such as women, children, the elderly and those who are ill or victims of torture will be accommodated in Italy
An Italian police officer walks inside of a recently built Italian-run migrant centre at the port of Shengjin
Housing units, a small hospital, a detention center and offices at the port are surrounded by a metal fence 16ft high and topped with barbed wire
Migrants crowd the deck of the Italian Coast Guard patrol boat CP327 as it arrives in the port of Lampedusa, 18 September 2023
Migrants departing from Tunisia are rescued by Spanish NGO workers off the coast of Italy, August 2023
Some 7,000 cement pillars went deep into the ground to consolidate the base, following the same Venice-style anti-seismic and anti-flooding construction standard, according to Bucci, adding that the center has independence of water supply with two wells and a separate power line.
It has all the Italian standards in construction and the most updated level of security and living standards like all the migrants camps in Italy, according to Bucci.
The logistics part of the personnel was divided with five metre tall barbed wire fences from the administrative offices, the area where those not granted asylum would stay and the bigger accommodation area, including a penitentiary area providing four-person shelter cells for up to 20 detainees.
The Gjader center has capacity for 3,000 beds. Officials expect it will never be at full occupancy but that depends on the flow of migrants brought here.
The centers will only house adult men, while vulnerable people such as women, children, the elderly and those who are ill or victims of torture will be accommodated in Italy. Families will not be separated.
Adult men made up 74 per cent of migrants arriving in Italy by sea during the first seven months of 2024, according to figures from the UN refugee agency, UNHCR.
While in Albania, the migrants will retain their right under international and European Union law to apply for asylum in Italy and have their claims processed there.
Each claim is expected to take a maximum of 28 days, including any appeal case, to process. Italy has agreed to welcome those who are granted asylum.
The inside of the tribunal room of a recently built Italian-run migrant centre at the port of Shengjin
The two controversial facilities will cost Italy around £560.7million over five years
According to the Italian Interior Ministry, as of October 11, 52,425 migrants have arrived in Italy by sea this year, compared to 138,947 by the same date last year
Those whose applications are rejected face deportation directly from Albania.
Respecting human and other rights for the migrants is of top priority, said the ambassador.
The controversial agreement to outsource the housing of asylum-seekers to a non-EU member country has been hailed by some countries that, like Italy, are suffering a heavy burden of refugees.
The agreement was endorsed by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as an example of out-of-box thinking in tackling the issue of migration into the European Union, but has been slammed by human rights groups as setting a dangerous precedent.
Rama has made it clear that no other country will be able to have such centers in Albania.
For Italy, they are considered an expression of gratitude for the tens of thousands of Albanians it welcomed with the fall of the communist regime in 1991.
Meloni and her right-wing allies have long demanded that European countries share more of the migration burden.
She has held up the Albania agreement as an innovative solution to a problem that has vexed the EU for years.
In the 1990s, Italy took in large numbers of Albanians and Rome is now one of the most solid backers of Albanias EU accession hopes.
We are friends, and between friends you help one another, Rama said last year.