Albania, opening of migrant centers postponed again

Roma — The first test of the Military Engineers, to open only a part of the Gjader detention center, is scheduled for August 20, the second which should instead give the go-ahead for the final delivery to the Viminale for September 1. And August 20 is also scheduled for the departure of the first contingent of 500 men including police, carabinieri and financial police who will have to ensure the operation of the Albania protocol. Therefore, compared to the first dates, that of August 1 announced by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni during her visit to Tirana, and the subsequent one of August 10 communicated to the various technical tables that have been following one another for weeks at the Ministries of the Interior and Justice, the postponement continues.

The summer of non-emergency

No big deal since this is certainly not a summer of emergency for migratory flows in consolidated decline of 63% (the lowest figure since the summer of Covid) and in the Italian hotspots and reception centers there is room everywhere. Suffice it to say that in September 2023 in Lampedusa 5,000 people arrived in a single day, as many as have landed now in the whole of July. Therefore the premises least suitable to justify an expense of almost a billion euros, how much the centers in Albania are expected to cost in the next five years.

Work still behind in Gjader

But poor quality of the land and heat are working against it. In the Gjader area, the companies that are working on the construction of the asylum seekers’ detention center, the CPR and the small prison are still having huge problems with the urbanization works and on August 1st the few housing modules assembled did not even have an electricity connection. Not even the little road that will lead directly to the houses where the asylum seekers from safe countries will be detained is ready, four per room in two bunk beds as can be glimpsed in the prefabricated buildings where, at the moment, there is no trace of air conditioning. And at these temperatures in the interior of Albania, which force the workers to work only at dawn or from late afternoon, the stay would be prohibitive.

No information on the operation

“The Italian centers in Albania are about to become operational,” the Undersecretary to the Presidency of the Council Alfredo Mantovano assured the Anti-Mafia Commission on July 30. But almost no one knows anything about the operation of the centers. Not the police forces that have been watching over the ready but deserted hotspot in Shengjin for two months, with an expense of 50,000 euros per month for daily allowances, food and lodging in two hotels that (luckily for them) are not like the G7 ships in Puglia. The technical tables have not yet communicated any information on how daily life will function in the two centers: in Shengjin, thorough identification of the migrants brought there will have to be guaranteed after the first sorting, which instead will take place directly on the Italian military ships where, it is not clear how and who will be able to establish whether the people rescued at sea really come from the so-called safe countries and do not present conditions of vulnerability. In the hotspot, people will have to be fed, washed in the ten showers installed, visited in the infirmary, asked if they intend to apply for asylum and notified of the arrest decree from the police commissioner of Rome. And then, passing through Albanian territory, it will be necessary to carry out the translations of the migrants who in the meantime will be placed in administrative detention provided that, within 48 hours, the judges of the immigration section of Rome validate the arrest with the migrants connected by videoconference. Ten screens have already been set up in the courtrooms of Rome, at the moment none in Albania.

Rescue at sea

Even those who will have to operate at sea are still waiting for instructions. Who will have to rescue and above all where the migrants to be taken to Albania? Presumably the vessels of our coast guard that operate on the Tunisian route where it is more likely to intercept people arriving from safe countries rather than on the Libyan one where most migrants have been tortured and are therefore vulnerable or arrive from unsafe countries. But it is precisely from Libya that 70% of departures are now recorded and therefore, paradoxical as it may seem, it will not be easy to put together a group of non-vulnerable adult men to be sent to Albania. Where, they will be taken by Italian military ships but only until September 15, after which a private ship chartered specifically for the purpose will enter. Provided that there is time to fulfill Giorgia Meloni’s wish: a trip, at least one, before the end of August. Whatever the cost.