EPAMigrants arrive in Italy by boat
NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 12:15
Albania will receive thousands of asylum seekers for Italy. The parliament in Tirana this morning approved the controversial plan to accommodate migrants from the other side of the Adriatic Sea in camps.
Prime Minister Rama announced the plan in November, together with his Italian colleague Meloni. Albania plans to take in 3,000 migrants a month in exchange for 600 million euros over the next five years. Because the asylum procedure should take a maximum of one month, the country hopes to be able to accommodate 36,000 people annually.
The migrants remain subject to Italian law and will also receive asylum in the EU if their application is approved. Albania arranges the reception and care.
Balkan correspondent Thijs Kettenis:
“Prime Minister Rama says that he especially wants to thank Italy for the help that thousands of Albanians received when they fled to Italy after the fall of communism. They were welcomed with open arms and now he wants to give something back.
That all sounds very noble, but it also involves a lot of money. Moreover, Albania would like to join the EU: it is a candidate member. Rama knows that migration is a hot topic within Europe. It is not inconceivable that – by behaving so generously – he is trying to gain favor in Brussels.”
The project is particularly controversial because there was no public or political discussion before Rama suddenly signed the agreements with Meloni. Opponents are concerned about whether it has been properly arranged who has ultimate responsibility in the event of a disaster. There are also fears that it is not clear what will happen to rejected asylum seekers.
There is also criticism outside Albania. Left-wing politicians in Italy spoke of deportations and “an Italian Guantánamo”, to the American camp in Cuba where terrorist suspects are locked up in a legal twilight zone. Experts also point out that it is not permitted at all to receive asylum seekers outside the EU.
The opposition therefore went to the Constitutional Court to have the plan thrown out, but that did not go along with the criticism. Because Rama’s socialists have the majority in parliament, the proposal was easily passed with 77 out of 140 votes. A noise protest by the 40 conservative parliamentarians was in vain.
The intention is that the first migrants will be transferred from Italy to Albania this spring. Italy is eager to get quick relief from the asylum crisis: almost 150,000 people arrived last year and the country believes that other EU countries are doing too little to distribute those migrants across the Union.
2024-02-22 11:15:08
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