We'll move forward on migrant centres in Albania - Tajani

EU and Italy supreme court have OKd controversial policy says FM

By: ansa.it

Dec 23 2024
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We'll move forward on migrant

Italy will move forward with its innovative and controversial programme of operating migrant processing centres in Albania to deter illegal immigration despite recent legal hurdles that have stymied it so far, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said after a government summit on the policy Monday.
    "We had a meeting with the Prime Minister (Giorgia Meloni), (Defence) Minister (Guido) Crosetto, (Interior) Minister (Matteo) Piantedosi, (European Affairs) Minister (Tommaso) Foti, Cabinet Secretary (Alfredo) Mantovano, Undersecretary (Giovanbattista) Fazzolari and we reiterated our commitment to follow the path that the European Union has also recognized, even at the last Council," said Tajani, who is also deputy premier, referring to statements of appreciation and interest from European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and several EU members.
    "We will move forward to combat human traffickers, to respect EU rules.
    "The innovative solutions have been appreciated and are also appreciated by other countries".
    "We have had a ruling from the (supreme Cassation) Court that confirms the validity of the government's choices," said Tajani, referring to a recent decision by the Cassation which showed that the government has the right to say which countries are safe for repatriation.
    "We will continue to work in this direction with great serenity, with great seriousness", said the centre-right post Berlusconi Forza Italia (FI) party leader.
    Tajani was speaking on the sidelines of a visit to Italy's contingent in the international peacekeeping force in Kosovo, KFOR.
    Meloni held the meeting with the ministers on getting the government's much-trumpeted scheme to process migrants at Italian-run centres in Albania operational after it was blocked by legal obstacles.
    Italian judges refused to validate the detention of the first two groups of asylum seekers (totalling 12 men) taken to Albania, under an agreement between Rome and Tirana, referring their cases to the European Court of Justice - which had earlier established that an applicant could not go through a fast-track procedure that could lead to their repatriation if their country of provenance was not deemed wholly safe.
    The countries of origin in the cases, Bangladesh and Egypt, were not adjudged to be safe "over all of their territory".
    The government has tried to get around this hurdle with a measure listing 19 safe countries for repatriation.
    They once again included both Bangladesh and Egypt.
    The countries are: Albania, Algeria, Bangladesh, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cape Verde, Cote d'Ivoire, Egypt, Gambia, Georgia, Ghana, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Morocco, Montenegro, Peru, Senegal, Serbia, Sri Lanka and Tunisia.
    During Sunday's 'North-South Summit' on European security and defence in Saariselkä, in the Finnish region of Lapland, Meloni said the Cassation verdict stated that the government was entitled to say which countries are safe for repatriation, no matter what any European court says.
    "The Cassation has said we are right about safe countries," Meloni said.
    The government is aiming to get the scheme, which has stirred the interest of many other European countries, up and running again in the new year, government sources have said.
    The Albania scheme has been criticised by Italy's opposition for being expensive - around 800 million euros over five years - and addressing only a drop in the ocean of migrants that reach Italy each year.
    When up to speed the two centres are projected to be able to process a yearly total of 3,000 migrants.
    Last year over 150,000 migrants reached Italy's shores, although the numbers are currently sharply down this year.
    In the first eight months of 2024, according to official figures, some 42,006 refugees and migrants arrived in Italy by sea, compared to 114,612 in the same period last year, a decrease of 63 per cent.
    But the centre-left opposition says the scheme is "an expensive propaganda stunt" that allegedly unacceptably externalises Italy's immigration policy and sets up a "new Guantanamo".
    After the contingent of Italian police supposed to guard the centres recently came home, the scheme's critics claimed the government was spending millions on "an empty Albanian dog pound".
    However, as well as von der Leyen, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is among the several foreign officials who have voiced interest in the Italy-Albania protocol as a model for deterring migrant departures.
    Meloni recently chaired an EC-sponsored meeting in which the leaders of Denmark, the Netherlands, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Malta, Poland and Sweden expressed curiosity about the policy.
    Elon Musk, a friend of Meloni's, has also hailed the protocol and joined a chorus of right-wing vitriol against the Italian judges who have so far blocked its implementation.
    Musk, the world's richest man and President-elect Donald Trump new efficiency czar, spurred claims of meddling by saying "these judges must go".