Meloni and Rama announce final opening of migrant centre
08 June 2024
Italian PM Giorgia Meloni visited Albania on 5 June and together with the Albanian PM Edi Rama announced that the migrant centre in Shengjin will start operating on 1 August. Following a two-month delay, with the central processing hub in Gjader still under construction, Albania will begin hosting migrants while they await the results of their petitions for asylum in Italy, up to 3,000 at a time. In exchange, Albania will receive €16.5 million. Only migrants coming from countries deemed safe by Italy (21 such countries in total - Bangladesh, Egypt, Ivory Coast and Tunisia being the origin countries of most migrants last year) will be sent to Albania. This excludes vulnerable categories such as pregnant women.
With this agreement, Italy plans to bypass the EU asylum rule that allows applicants to stay in the responsible member state until a decision is made, as the hubs are under Italian jurisdiction.
While the EU permits third countries to host asylum seekers, they must be safe and must comply with international norms.
The debates on handling asylum claims have intensified because of the backlash the Dublin Regulation has received over the years, and the border countries claim that they take the brunt of the immigration issues - since the regulation deals with determining which country is responsible for considering asylum applications. The Regulation has been subject to criticism and debate, particularly regarding its fairness and effectiveness. Some argue that it places a disproportionate burden on member states at the EU's external borders, where most asylum seekers first arrive, such as Greece and Italy. Reforms and proposals for a more equitable distribution of responsibility among member states have been ongoing topics of discussion within the EU.
Human rights organisations have concerns about Albania in regards to safety, procedural guarantees, protection of vulnerable individuals, and potential violations of liberty, as migrants will not be allowed to leave the hubs.
 | Ariadna Mañé Many believe extraterritorial asylum is the solution to Europe's migrant crisis. The costs are allegedly similar to hosting migrants at home, despite possible violations of human rights and concerns over the respect for international norms. While it is a policy in Denmark, Australia, and the US, it is generally new in the EU. It functions in a way that a country concludes an externalisation agreement with another one, to which asylum applicants would be sent for processing. Australia, for example, does it with Cambodia and some other countries. Thus far, EU migration agreements have focused more on deportation than hosting during the asylum process. Deals with Türkiye, returning migrants arriving to the Greek islands from the country; and with Libya, returning intercepted migrants to EU-funded detention centres on Libyan soil, have also faced widespread criticism. |
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