The EU remains on the sidelines of the Italy-Albania migrant deal

TIRANA, Albania — A senior European Union official on Wednesday refused to be swayed by the idea of ​​a deal between Italy and Albania to process some migrants in centers established in the small Western Balkan country, saying only that was watching closely.

The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said that “we have been very clear from the very beginning that we are monitoring the development related to this agreement very closely.”

Under a five-year agreement signed last November by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her Albanian counterpart, Edi Rama, up to 3,000 migrants picked up by the Italian coast guard in international waters each month will be taken to Albania. Their asylum applications will be processed there.

Italy has agreed to take in those migrants who are granted asylum, while those whose applications are rejected face deportation directly from Albania.

The first 12 migrants taken in last week in Albanian centers were brought back to Italy three days later, following a decision by judges in Rome, who rejected their detention, arguing that their countries of origin — Bangladesh and Egypt—were not safe enough to be there. sent back

Italy’s far-right government approved a new decree on Monday aimed at overcoming judicial hurdles that risked derailing a controversial migration deal with Albania.

With the new decree, which takes effect immediately, the government shortened the list of countries considered “safe” by law, meaning Rome can repatriate migrants who have not obtained asylum through a fast-track procedure.

The court ruling was an early obstacle to the five-year deal between Italy and Albania.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has strongly pushed the deal, championing it as a new “model” for managing illegal immigration.

In a letter to EU leaders last December, a month after the agreement was signed in Rome, von der Leyen praised “important initiatives” to restrict migration from some of the bloc’s 27 member countries, including ” the operational agreement between Italy and Albania”.

“This serves as an example of thinking outside the box, based on the fair sharing of responsibilities with third countries in accordance with EU obligations and international law,” he wrote.

Von der Leyen was in Tirana on Monday as part of a regional tour to reassure Western Balkan countries that expanding the trading bloc remained one of her priorities. He said only that the Italy-Albania deal was “a bilateral agreement” that the EU would not comment on but would only monitor.

Human rights groups and NGOs active in the Mediterranean have described the agreement as a dangerous precedent that conflicts with international laws.

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