Albania - February 2024

On 22 February, the parliament ratified a deal between Prime Minister Edi Rama and Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, which will lead to the transfer of asylum seekers rescued at sea by Italian authorities to Italian-funded detention centers in Albania. Women, children and individuals deemed “vulnerable” will be exempt from the centers, sparking concerns about potential family separations. Experts and rights groups say the deal breaches international law, has legal ambiguities and will likely impact protection of rights. The deal was previously ruled constitutional by the Albanian Constitutional Court and was approved by the Italian Senate. Opposition MPs criticized the deal for its lack of transparency and threats to national security, while the Italian center-left opposition MPs called it a “shameful attempt” to turn Albania into Italy's version of "Guantanamo”. While the Constitutional Court said Albanian law would apply in the detention centers, Italian PM Meloni stated they would fall under Italian jurisdiction. The Council of Europe's Commissioner for Human Rights warned the deal “will likely undermine crucial human rights safeguards.”

Sources: Reporter.al, Euronews, Euronews Albania, Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Verfassungsblog, International IDEA  

Update: Migrant detention centers in Albania, set up in October to review asylum applications for people rescued or stopped at sea by Italian ships, have sent all migrants back to Italy. The centers were designed to decide if migrants could be sent back to their countries of origin or returned to Italy for further legal processing. However, a Rome Court ruled these migrants cannot be repatriated due to unsafe countries of origin (Bangladesh and Egypt). In an emergency meeting, the Italian government passed a decree to overcome the ruling, allowing the government to amend the list of safe countries, but in November, the Court again ordered the migrants’ return to Italy. This sparked a dispute between the government and the judiciary over the definition of “safe countries” and the precedence of EU law. The government designated certain countries as safe, even though some regions within them remain unsafe. The Court’s decision aligned with a prior European Court of Justice ruling, which states a country cannot be deemed safe if it has unsafe regions.  

Sources: Ditar, il Manifesto, Politico, European Court of Justice, Euronews (1), Euronews (2), The Guardian (1), The Guardian (2)