Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni (right) and Edi Rama, Prime Minister of Albania. Image AP
The deal includes the reception of three thousand boat people, but Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni hopes that this will eventually increase to 36 thousand per year. Meloni announced the migration deal with her Albanian counterpart Edi Rama on Monday. These are people who do not reach the Italian mainland, but who are rescued from the sea by the Italian coast guard.
This does not matter for their legal status, says Annick Pijnenburg, assistant professor of International and European Law at Radboud University in Nijmegen. “Once they are on an Italian boat, they fall under Italian jurisdiction.”
These boat refugees are taken directly to Albania, where they have to await their asylum procedure. Vulnerable people, such as minors or pregnant women, ‘normally’ go to Italy. Refugees taken from the sea by NGOs are also not covered by this deal.
The two centers in northwestern Albania should open in spring next year. “This can become a model of cooperation between EU countries and non-EU countries in combating migration,” Meloni said in an interview with the Italian newspaper Il Messaggero on Tuesday.
‘Legal feasibility doubtful’
Meloni, together with Prime Minister Rutte, was a pioneer of the deal that the EU concluded with Tunisia. The fact that the Italian Prime Minister is now making bilateral agreements may well go wrong in Brussels. According to the Italian newspaper La Stampa, the European Commission was completely surprised by the deal and Meloni only informed the Commission a few hours before the public announcement.
Politicians in several European countries have previously suggested moving migrants outside the EU. The Commission was previously critical of a Danish law that allows migrants to be sent to Rwanda. Outsourcing the asylum procedure to a country outside the EU is ‘not possible under existing EU rules or under the proposals of the new Migration Pact’, European Commissioner Ylva Johansson (Home Affairs) said in 2021. And then Italy also lacks the exceptional position on migration policy that Denmark has negotiated.
According to Pijnenburg, moving migrants to other countries is theoretically possible. But there are many legal obligations that must be met. The question is who is responsible: “Italy says it will exercise jurisdiction over the centers, but Albania is responsible for security,” said Pijnenburg.
Different degrees of migrants
While the legal feasibility depends on the conditions in the Albanian reception centers. Albania has little experience in receiving large numbers of migrants. Italy will soon be obliged to provide migrants with health care, food and enough space. Moreover, Italy cannot force people to stay for a long time in a place they never chose.
The refugees brought to Albania must await their asylum procedure there. “There must be a decent asylum procedure, with all the associated guarantees,” says Pijnenburg. ‘That can take a while and you can’t just lock people up for a longer period of time.’
Because only refugees who cannot make it to the Italian mainland are brought to Albania, Italian lawyer and immigration expert Maurizio Veglio fears that migrants with a ‘lower status’ than others will emerge, he told Reuters.
Pijnenburg acknowledges that discrimination lurks, but states that this problem is now also presenting itself. ‘For example, refugees who do not make it are often taken back to Libya by the Libyan coast guard. Refugees rescued by NGOs end up in Italy. That is also a form of arbitrariness.’
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2023-11-08 11:20:36
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