At 7.30 a.m. on Tuesday, the Italian navy vessel Cassiopeia arrived in the Albanian port of Shengjin.
On board were 49 migrants who had hoped to start a new, better life in Europe but had been rescued on their way to the EU by the Italian navy in international waters near Lampedusa.
Despite two failed attempts last October and November, the Italian government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is still determined to process migrant asylum applications in Albania, which is not a member of the EU.
When the ship docked on Tuesday, it was unclear whether the newly arrived migrants would be in Albania for long.
Five were immediately returned to the Asylum Seekers’ Center in Bari, Italy, on board the Cassiopeia after preliminary checks identified four minors and one vulnerable adult, who was deemed to be a victim of trafficking.
Quick decision on asylum applications in Italy
The remaining migrants — mostly men from Bangladesh, Egypt, The Gambia and Ivory Coast — were escorted by police to the Gjader camp, a military base in northwestern Albania, where a center had been set up to accommodate them while their asylum applications were processed.
On Thursday, the Court of Appeal in Rome rejected the asylum requests of 43 of the migrants. They must now remain in the Gjader camp and have seven days to lodge an appeal against the court’s decision.
One asylum application was accepted; the migrant in question will be returned to Italy.
Two failed attempts
Despite Thursday’s decision on the migrants’ applications, it is at present impossible to say whether the Italian government’s scheme for housing migrants in Albania can be implemented as planned.
In November 2023, the governments of Italy and Albania signed a controversial agreement that allowed Italy to construct and run two camps on Albanian soil to house male migrants for up to four weeks.
According to the 2023 agreement, Albania will be able to accommodate around 3,000 migrants at the Gjader camp at any one time. Over the course of a year, this could mean up to 36,000 migrants being sent to Albania.
Italy’s two previous attempts failed. In October, 16 asylum seekers were returned to Italy. It was a similar story in the first week of November, when a court in Rome ordered the return of seven migrants to Italy less than 48 hours after their arrival at the Gjader camp.
For a person’s asylum or international protection application to be processed by Italy while the applicant is in Albania, the migrant’s country of origin must be considered “safe.”
Citing European law, the judges in Rome argued that a country of origin cannot be considered “safe” if parts of that country are not safe, including for certain groups of people, such as political dissidents or members of the LGBTQ+ community.
The European Court of Justice is expected to rule on the matter on February 25.
Will the Albanian model work?
“There are cases where individuals may come from ‘safe countries,’ but their personal circumstances could still make them eligible for asylum in a particular country,” says Ledion Krisafi, an Albanian expert in international relations.
In an effort to protect what is known as the “Albanian model,” Meloni’s government responded to the ruling by updating the list of countries that Italy considers safe for repatriation, reducing the number from 22 to 19.
“In this respect, it seems that there is no real problem with the agreement itself or the procedures. The problem seems instead to be a legal dispute regarding Italy’s and the EU’s standards and procedures in this case,” says Krisafi.
Local support for the camp
The construction of the camp in the village of Gjader was greeted with optimism by the local community. Most families in the surrounding region depend on income from farming or remittances, so, the camp means new jobs for them.
“Twenty-two women and nine men from Gjader and surrounding areas have been employed by the camp,” says Aleksander Preka, mayor of Gjader.
Preka, who is 65 years old and owns a grocery store in the center of the village, says that work increases whenever Italian ships bring migrants. So far, however, the camp has mostly remained empty.
As a result, most of the workers have only been paid half their wages. “We hope the camp will operate properly because we want the well-being of the people in the area to improve,” Preka told DW.
Critics await ruling from European Court of Justice
But not everyone in Albania shares this hope. Albanian critics of the agreement, for example, were relieved by the ruling of the Italian court last year.
There were no protests ahead of the arrival of the third group of migrants on Tuesday.
“We continue to oppose the agreement, as we consider it a violation of human rights,” said Mariglend Doci, a 29-year-old, who, along with a group of activists, has opposed the agreement from the start. “We hope the European Court [of Justice] will rule against it. If not, we will resume our protests,” he told DW.
Will the agreement smooth Albania’s path to EU membership?
“I think that this agreement is a show. It doesn’t solve the problem of irregular immigration in Italy. It is designed to show to the Italian public that the government is doing something about this sensitive issue,” says Krisafi. “However, this development marks a new chapter for Albania in dealing with migration issues.”
Albania began EU membership negotiations last October, at a time when the bloc seemed determined to ramp up its measures against irregular immigration.
At the European Council last October, EU leaders discussed setting up so-called “return hubs” along the lines of the Albanian model in non-EU countries as a way of managing the influx of refugees. These hubs would be used to house migrants whose EU asylum applications had been rejected while they await deportation to their home country, as long as that country is considered safe.
“With this agreement, Albania has expressed its willingness to cooperate closely with international partners, even on issues that do not directly affect it,” says Krisafi. “Whether this agreement fails or not, even though it may not ultimately work in practice, Albania has achieved its goal. Albania has done its part.”
Edited by: Aingeal Flanagan
