Italy has transported 49 people to Albania, in the latest push by Giorgia Meloni’s government to enforce a legally disputed plan to have asylum claims processed in the Balkan country as part of a hardline policy critics have called “disgraceful”.
The Italian navy ship Cassiopeia arrived at Shëngjin port on Tuesday morning carrying passengers intercepted on Saturday in the Mediterranean south of the island of Lampedusa. They will be identified and have a health check before being transferred to a detention centre in Gjadër, about 12 miles away.
The development comes amid an increase in the number of refugees arriving in southern Italy by boat. According to data from the interior ministry, 3,312 people arrived in January, more than double arrivals in the same month last year. Almost half landed over the weekend; of the 421 people screened by Italian patrols, 49 were sent to Albania.
The interior ministry has not provided their nationalities, although Ansa news agency reported they were from Bangladesh, Egypt, the Gambia and Ivory Coast, countries Italy considers safe.
Italy’s latest push to process asylum claims in Albania comes after two failed attempts in the autumn, when a court in Rome ruled the detention of a small group of people was unlawful because their countries of origin, which included Bangladesh and Egypt, were unsafe to be repatriated to if their asylum requests were rejected.
The cases were referred to the European court of justice, which is expected to rule on 25 February. In a ruling last year that did not relate to Italy, the court said no country of origin could be deemed safe if a part of it was dangerous.
Two detention centres have been built in Albania as part of an initiative intended to hold 3,000 people intercepted each month in Italian seas. The pact, which is costing Italy about €670m over five years, is the first of its kind by an EU country in a non-EU country. It has attracted attention from some world leaders, including British prime minister Keir Starmer, but has been condemned by Italian opposition politicians and human rights groups.
“Meloni is forcing her hand in continuing with the deportation of migrants to Albania,” said Alessandro Zan from the centre-left Democratic party. “This tramples on the judges’ sentences and crushes the right to asylum.”
Almost all of those who arrived in Italy this month had left from Libya, according to La Repubblica newspaper, despite Italy’s pact with the north African country intended to stop boat departures.
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The newspaper said the increase last weekend could be connected to the case of Osama Najim, the Libyan general suspected of war crimes, including abuses against migrants and refugees held in Libyan detention centres as part of the pact. Italy released and sent him back to Tripoli last week, despite an international criminal court arrest warrant.
“While the Italian government offers safe passage to [alleged] Libyan war criminals, it continues to forcibly transfer innocent people fleeing war and misery to detention centre in Albania, despite clear violations of international law and human rights,” said Ilaria Salis, an Italian MEP. “Public resources are being used not to protect the vulnerable, but to shield the powerful. It’s hard to imagine a more disgraceful policy.”
