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Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni remains confident, despite legal setbacks, that the deportation facilities in Albania, promoted by her right-wing government, will function as planned.<\/p>\n
“It’s going exactly as I always told you: The centres in Albania will work,” Meloni told supporters at an event of her Brothers of Italy party in Rome on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Meloni pointed to an agreement within the EU on a tougher stance on migration. The EU states recently agreed in Brussels to increase pressure on rejected asylum seekers and deport them more efficiently.<\/p>\n
Return centres in countries outside the EU should also be possible in the future, including in Albania. However, the plans still need to be finally approved.<\/p>\n
Several courts have stopped plans so far<\/strong><\/p>\n The Italian government’s plan to return rejected asylum seekers on a large scale, even before they set foot on Italian soil, has not progressed at all so far.<\/p>\n The outsourcing of decisions on asylum applications to Albania has been prohibited by several court rulings from Italian and European authorities.<\/p>\n Meloni once again complained about “politicized judgements by the judiciary.” The project will only work “thanks to the judges” with a delay of one and a half years, said Meloni.<\/p>\n Facilities largely empty<\/strong><\/p>\n Specifically, the project involves a reception centre opened at the end of 2024 in the Albanian port city of Sh\u00ebngjin and the associated deportation camp in Gjad\u00ebr.<\/p>\n So far, the facilities are largely empty. The costs are currently estimated at about \u20ac130 million per year ($152 million).<\/p>\n The Albania model is a prestige project of Meloni’s three-party coalition of far-right and conservative parties.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n