Italy to build detention hubs in Albania: What do they mean for migrants?

Crowds of African "boat people" overfill a centre for welcoming migrants in a small harbour town on the Italian island of Lampedusa.

Many wrapped in metallic emergency blankets, others reclining on makeshift cots, the people are awaiting documentation, upon which they will be sent to another, larger camp in Sicily.

"Lampedusa is stretched beyond capacity," says Francesca Basile, a spokeswoman for the Italian Red Cross on Lampedusa.

More than 145,000 migrants from Africa have landed in south Italy so far in 2023, compared to around 88,000 in 2022.

Such scenes are an embarrassment for Italy's new right-wing government, which came to power last year largely on promises to curb illegal migration and steer African migrants away from Italian shores.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni now has a novel plan — the burden of housing and processing African migrants destined for Italy will be transferred to Albania.

The new scheme was unveiled earlier this month by Meloni and her Albanian counterpart Prime Minister Edi Rama. Under the scheme, Italy will build and staff immigrant detention camps in Albania to house Italy-bound African immigrants intercepted at sea en route by the Italian navy and coast guard.

Meloni announced that two camps, euphemistically called "reception centres", would handle "a total annual flow of 36,000 people". The two camps will likely become fully operational by spring 2024.

Growing resistance

The surprising decision, which was made public suddenly without any prior public debate in either Italy or Albania, is fraught with controversy and has been met with resistance by Italian opposition politicians, international rights groups, as well as broad segments of the Albanian media and the population at large in Albania.

Meloni and her Brothers of Italy party have been seen to be failing to make good on their campaign promises to stem the seemingly unstoppable flow of African immigrants from Tunisia and Libya landing on Lampedusa.

Meloni has threatened to impose naval blockades against migrant boats and has introduced rules against rescue ships operated by non-governmental organisations, which she has accused of working in conjunction with human traffickers.

In April, Italian ministers declared a six-month state of emergency in response to the rising numbers of migrants crossing the Mediterranean from North Africa — up 65 percent from last year.

One of the two proposed camps will be set up in the north Albanian coastal town of Shengjin and serve as a scanning and registration point for asylum-seekers headed to the EU.

Ensuing asylum application procedures will be conducted in a repatriation centre further inland, in Gjader, the site of a former military airport. The two camps will be maintained by Italy "in full compliance with the European Union and international law," according to Meloni.

Migrants whose applications are rejected will be sent back to their countries of origin.

While Albania's offer has come out of the blue for many, the issue of camps housing migrants bound for the EU being set up in non-EU countries - including Albania - has been bandied about for some time now.

A similar controversial proposal – known as the "Rwandan model" — was drawn up by the British government, whereby thousands of asylum-seekers would be flown to Rwanda, where their asylum applications would be examined.

In its hope to keep new arrivals at arm's length, the UK did, however, construct a giant 222-room, three-story "migrant barge" off the south coast of England for migrants unwanted on British soil. The plan has been criticised for the inhumane conditions in which people are detained, as well as being a fire hazard and public health risk.

Albania to the rescue

Before the Albanian plan, Meloni had proposed setting up immigrant detention facilities in North Africa. However, no country from the region agreed to go along with the plan, despite Italy's offer of 127 million euros to curb undocumented migration.

For a while now, rumours have been coursing around that Albania would host such immigrant processing camps, despite Edi Rama's adamant denials regarding the feasibility of such plans.

"Albania will never be a place where very rich countries will create camps for their refugees. Never!" Rama told reporters bluntly in November 2021. Now, Rama appears to have made an astonishing volte face.

Speaking in Italian, next to Meloni on November 7 at the Prime Minister's palace in Rome, Rama said that he felt it his duty as an Albanian to throw Italy a lifeline in the country's struggle to tackle illegal migration, citing the special relationship the two countries have enjoyed in terms of proximity and colonial history.

In particular, Rama emphasised that Albania owed the Italian people an immeasurable debt for taking in thousands of Albanian refugee boat people in the early nineties after the collapse of Albania's communist regime.

According to data published in 2021 by the Italian National Institute of Statistics, at least 230,000 Albanian citizens have acquired Italian citizenship since 1991.

"If Italy calls, Albania will be there," Rami said.

Rama denied offering Italy land for migrant camps in return for easing Albania's accession to the EU. The decision was made from the goodness of his heart, Rami suggested.

"Black holes"

Amnesty International has called the agreement between Rama and Meloni "illegal and ineffective".

"People rescued at sea by Italian authorities, including those seeking safety in Europe, are under Italian jurisdiction and cannot be sent to another country before their asylum claim and individual circumstances have been examined," says Elisa De Pieri, regional researcher for Amnesty International.

Among its various points of contention, Amnesty International has drawn attention to the fact that the agreement provides for forced return, a practice prohibited under international and European law and for which Italy has previously been condemned by the European Court of Human Rights in 2012.

Representatives of the Italian opposition criticised the agreement as an open violation of international laws and compared the proposed camps to the United States' infamous offshore detention centre at Guantanamo Bay.

Migrant detention centres in Italy are well-known for their cruel conditions and violations of basic human rights. The most infamous camp in Turin was recently the site of a near-fatal knife fight and ensuing suicide. Theft, robbery, and sexual harassment are rife in detention centres Italy-wide.

The camps in Italy have been nicknamed "black holes" for their almost complete lack of transparency regarding what goes on inside them.

Members of non-governmental organisations and rights workers are not allowed inside these centres to monitor the situation there. Detainees have their phones taken away as soon as they enter and are only allowed a short time to contact their families and under police supervision. Also, it has often been reported that detainees often go without eating for days.

Albania is traditionally a country of emigration rather than immigration, and many in the country seem disinclined to support a deal in which large influxes of African refugees could potentially pose a threat to Albania's budding tourism industry.

"There has been a lack of public information, particularly regarding the local communities where immigrants are expected to be placed," says Arbjona Cibuku, Albanian journalist from Albanian state TV.

"Public opinion is divided, with many voicing xenophobic views. The opposition is largely focused on how the agreement will be implemented," says Cibuku. "The left-wing party, Levizja Bashke, has opposed the agreement, stating that it undermines the country's sovereignty."

The African boat people who have been reaching Italy's shores and who may now be redirected to Albania have largely come from Guinea and Tunisia, as well as Ivory Coast, which has a sizable Muslim population.