Only Italy can operate migrant asylum centres in Albania: PM Edi Rama

Associated Press: Tirana Albania's prime minister on Tuesday said his government had turned down many requests from other European Union countries to take in thousands of asylum-seekers but made an exception for Italy. An Italian navy ship was expected to dock at the Albanian port of Shengjin with the first group of 16 migrants who were intercepted in international waters and whose asylum applications will be processed in two centres in Albania instead of in Italy, under a five-year agreement between the two countries. Prime Minister Edi Rama, speaking in Luxembourg at an EU conference, repeated that no other country will be able to operate asylum centres in Albania. He said Albania felt an expression of gratitude for the tens of thousands of Albanians who were welcomed by Italy when communism fell in 1991, or support extended by Rome during the economic turmoil in 1997 and in the aftermath of the 2019 earthquake. The Italian naval ship Libra left the port of Lampedusa in southern Italy on Monday with 16 men 10 from Bangladesh and six from Egypt who were rescued at sea after departing from Libya, according to the Italian government.

The number of migrants reaching Italy along the central Mediterranean route from North Africa has fallen by 61% in 2024 from 2023. According to the Italian Interior Ministry, as of October 15, 54,129 migrants have arrived in Italy by sea this year, compared to 138,947 in the same period last year. Under a five-year deal signed last November by Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni and Rama, up to 3,000 migrants picked up by the Italian Coast Guard in international waters each month will be sheltered in Albania. They will be screened initially on board the ships that rescue them before being sent to Albania for further screening. The first centre in Shengjin, 66 kilometres northwest of the capital, Tirana, will be used for screening newcomers and the other facility.