Migrants should be housed in the centers until a decision is made on their asylum.
Italy resumed transporting migrants to its controversial centers in Albania on Sunday. Previous attempts to place them in centers there during the processing of asylum applications ran into legal obstacles, TASR reports according to the AFP agency.
Italian authorities sent 49 people caught in the Mediterranean to centers on the ship Cassiopea on Sunday. There, “reception… and evaluation of individual cases will begin,” the interior ministry said in a statement.
It added that another 53 captured migrants have submitted their passports, which will speed up their processing and increase the possibility of deporting “those who do not have the right to remain in the European Union”.
This is the third group of migrants transported to Albania under the controversial plan – after two operations in October and November last year.
Migrants did not come from safe countries
The Italian government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has agreed with Tirana to set up two migrant camps in non-EU Albania by the end of 2023, with the aim of placing some of them there to decide on asylum applications.
Last year, the Italian courts twice overturned the detention of smaller groups of migrants in Albania. They pointed out that the migrants placed in the camps did not come from safe countries to which they could be returned. The cases have been referred to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg, which is expected to issue a decision in February.
In December, the Italian Supreme Court ruled that the government can introduce different rules for asylum seekers from countries deemed safe to return. The government included 19 countries on such a list.
The deal with Albania has been criticized by the Italian opposition, which says it is too expensive – it will require 800 million euros over five years – and deals with only a small number of the number of migrants arriving in the country each year. However, the European Commission and the leaders of several European countries have shown interest in similar agreements as a possible model for managing migration outside the EU.
