There are 16 of them who disembarked early in the morning at the port of Shengjin, in Albania, under good… Italian escort. Sixteen men, from Egypt and Bangladesh, intercepted at sea while trying to enter Italy illegally. Their arrival will inaugurate two migrant camps, installed in Albania after an agreement signed in November 2023 between the head of the far-right Italian government, Giorgia Meloni, and the Albanian socialist Prime Minister, Edi Rama.
But what exactly does this agreement provide? Does it comply with European law? Is Georgia Meloni realizing in Italy the dream of the British Rishi Sunak, who wanted to expel immigrants to Rwanda? Could the very right-wing Bruno Retailleau be seduced by the idea? 20 Minutes takes stock.
What does the agreement between Italy and Albania provide for?
The profile of migrants landing in Albania is quite precise. “This will only concern people rescued at sea by the Italian coast guard, among whom there will be sorting according to vulnerability,” explains Tania Racho, assessor judge at the National Court of Asylum and member of the Désinfox-Migrations network. Women and children will therefore be immediately excluded from the process and landed in Italy, as will “people who have suffered acts of torture”, a criterion whose assessment could be vague. “The subtlety is that it is not a transfer, so Italy is not violating the principle of non-refoulement,” explains the doctor in European law to 20 Minutes.
Two centers were built by Italy, for 65 million euros, twice the planned budget. The first is located directly at the port of Shengjin, made up of a few prefabricated buildings surrounded by fences. This is where the identity of migrants will be verified and recorded. “Here, we will welcome 200 to 500 people maximum and they will not stay more than 24 hours,” promises AFP Sander Marashi, the port director of this town of 4,000 inhabitants.
Then the migrants are taken to the Gjader camp, 20 km to the north. Up to 880 people can be accommodated there in 12m² prefabs, surrounded by high walls and monitored by cameras. Security inside the camp is ensured by Italian law enforcement. Asylum seekers are supposed to stay there for a maximum of twenty-eight days; After this period, if the request has not yet been processed, they will be sent back to Italy pending a decision. Rome will pay 160 million euros per year to maintain the two centers. “It’s a lot of money invested for a project that concerns few people,” says Tania Racho.
Can we compare it with the plan to deport migrants to Rwanda in the United Kingdom?
Rishi Sunak made it the flagship project of his migration policy. Despite heated debates, the former British Prime Minister had his project on sending migrants to Rwanda adopted. “It was similar, the idea was to target people who arrive in an irregular situation and ask for asylum when they could have done so elsewhere,” recognizes Tania Racho. But Rishi Sunak lost the election a few months later and the project was definitively ruled out by Keir Starmer, the new Labor Prime Minister.
“There was no one sent to Rwanda,” recalls Tania Racho, a plane having been grounded by a court decision at the last moment. Having left the European Union, the United Kingdom has not necessarily left the convention on human rights. However, to continue the parallel, “there is a real question about respect for human rights in Rwanda, it is also true with Albania”.
Can we see this type of system becoming widespread in Europe, particularly in France?
“Legally, what Italy is doing is very vague,” warns Tania Racho. If focusing on migrants intercepted at sea avoids the question of non-refoulement, this subtlety is inapplicable for many countries. In France, the vast majority of asylum seekers arrive by road from another European country. Thus, a migrant in this situation “could not be sent to a camp in a country outside the EU”, explains the assessor of the National Court of Asylum.
And even outside the Union, the candidates risk being rare, Albania having clearly indicated that it would only deal with Italy. Still, “there is a problem with constantly displacing people based solely on their irregular situation,” says Tania Racho. On the other hand, further along in the asylum application, after a rejection, the status of migrants changes. “Return hubs on European territory” could emerge, she imagines.
