FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
The two centers in Albania will cost Italy 670 million euros (730 million dollars) over five years...
Migrants rescued at sea while trying to reach Italy may find themselves in Albania starting next month. This is thanks to a controversial agreement under which the small Balkan country will host thousands of asylum seekers on behalf of Italy.
Speaking during a visit to Albania in June, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said the two centers set up to accommodate migrants would be ready to receive the first 1,000 people by August 1. But intensive construction is still underway, casting doubt on whether it will be fully ready in time. Neither Italy nor Albania have indicated when the first migrants are likely to arrive.
The five-year agreement, signed by Meloni and her Albanian counterpart Edi Rama last November, provides for the shelter of up to 3,000 migrants caught by the Italian coast guard in international waters each month. They will be checked first, before being sent to Albania.
The centers will accommodate only adult men, the Italian ambassador to Albania, Fabrizio Bucci, told the Associated Press. People considered vulnerable – women, children, the elderly and those who are ill or victims of torture – will be sheltered in Italy. Families will also not be separated, the ambassador said.
Those sent to Albania will retain their right under international and European Union law to apply for asylum in Italy and have their claims processed there, but their movement in and out of centers in Albania will be restricted .
With each request taking about a month to process, the number of people sent to Albania could reach 36,000 in a year. Italy has agreed to welcome those who receive asylum. Those whose applications are rejected face direct deportation from Albania, the ambassador said.
Approved by European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, the deal has been criticized by human rights groups as setting a dangerous precedent.
"The International Rescue Committee (IRC) highlights the dangers associated with the scheme and urges the EU and its member states not to use this dangerous model as a blueprint for their approaches to asylum and migration," the humanitarian organization said. on a July 23. statement. Earlier this year, the IRC described the deal as "costly, cruel and counterproductive".
This is not the first time a country has sought to relocate asylum seekers. New British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has abandoned the former Conservative government's much-criticized plan to send some migrants to Rwanda to process their asylum claims. The new home secretary, Yvette Copper, said the £700m cost of the plan was "the most appalling waste of taxpayers' money I have ever seen".
The two centers in Albania will cost Italy 670 million euros ($730 million) over five years. The facilities will be fully run by Italy and both centers are under Italian jurisdiction, while Albanian guards will provide external security.
One of the centers, in the port of Shengjin, on the Adriatic coast of Albania, has been ready for more than a month. But the other, about 24 kilometers (15 miles) east of it near a former military airport in Gjadër, was still far from completion with just a week before its scheduled opening date.
Bucci, the Italian ambassador, said the first delay was due to the destroyed soil in the Gjaderi camp, which needed intervention to consolidate it. Also, the heat wave in July forced the authorities to impose a break during the hottest hours of the day.
"Our main concern is and will remain the absolute safety and protection of the workers at the construction site and, eventually, of the immigrants who will be sheltered in Gjadër," said Bucci.
The Associated Press was not allowed into the camp, but evidence of intensive construction was clear, with two excavators and a long crane working furiously, digging to prepare for the installation of a fence around the 50-hectare site. and movement of large pipes.
The container buildings that will provide housing for the camp's residents have already been installed. The head of the nearby village of Gjadër and local residents said that the work at the center was far from over.
Far from the controversy the deal has caused elsewhere, low-income villagers — a source of immigration themselves — said they appreciated the center being built in their area. With few local job opportunities, more than two-thirds of Gjader's population have emigrated to other European countries over the past 30 years, and some locals said they felt an affinity with the migrant center's potential residents.
"Honoring those in need will make us more in number, regardless of their race, language or nation," said Bib Lazri, a 70-year-old resident of Gjader.
The center is also bringing an economic boom to the impoverished rural area.
"People have seen their lives improve. They want to be employed. There is movement and vitality", said the elder Sandër Preka. "People are very happy." His shop, he said, had seen 30% higher turnover in the past month, while some locals have rented out their homes to migrant center workers and others have found jobs at the centre.
In Shengjin, a 4,000-square-meter area contains residential units and offices at the port, surrounded by a five-meter-high metal fence topped with barbed wire. A sign reads: “Security Level 1″. Journalists were denied access.
Meloni and her right-wing allies have long called for European countries to share more of the burden of migration. It has maintained the agreement with Albania as an innovative solution to a problem that has troubled the EU for years. / "Associated Press"
Lini një Përgjigje