Italy will resume the transfer of migrants to controversial areas in the coming days detention centers which was built on Albanian territory to manage possible repatriations, after justice forced them to be emptied and, in response, the government of Giorgia Meloni publish a decree-law to protect them.
The navy ship Libra, responsible for the first transfer of migrants to Albania three weeks ago, “will return to the high seas in the coming days”Interior Ministry sources confirmed to EFE this Saturday. According to local media, the so-called “Operation Albania” I could start again next Monday, when the ship is 20 miles from the island of Lampedusa (south), the gateway for people crossing the Mediterranean to Italy.
Official sources explained to EFE that for the moment no precise date can be established, because “it will also depend on the state of the sea and the departures” of the barges transporting migrants in the Mediterranean. In any case, the ship will rescue those in international waters and will transfer to Albania those who meet the established requirements in the agreement signed between Rome and Tirana, through which two centers were built in the Albanian towns of Shengjin and Gjader to ease the pressure on the Italian reception system.
The operation was able to resume three weeks after the first failed transfer to Shengjin of the first 16 migrants from Egypt and Bangladesh: four of them had to be sent back immediately because they were minors or “vulnerable” and two days more Later, the Rome court did not follow up. validate the retention of the remaining twelve and orders their return to Italy.
The judicial decision, based on a European judgment and alleging that the migrants sent to Albania came from “dangerous countries”, provoked the indignation of the government, which approved a decree to stipulate by law the list of countries that do not have an immigrant. why escape and thus protect the controversial centers of Albania. Meloni’s strategy, which consisted of establishing a list of “safe countries” with a decree having the force of law used for reasons of “necessity or urgency”, was questioned by the court of Bologna (northern Italy ), which consulted the Court of Justice. of the European Union (EU) believing that it violated European law.
But The far-right Prime Minister decided to continue with the agreement, without waiting for a response.after declaring on television that the Bologna court’s request “was considered by many more as a propaganda pamphlet than as a judicial document.” The Meloni government, which, before the legal shock, had received the support of European countries for its project and a favorable opinion from the President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, is strongly criticized by the opposition.
The latest controversy on this subject arose this Friday, when local media revealed that housing nearly 300 Italian police officers responsible for managing the centers in Albania would cost almost 9 million euros per year. Accommodation costs amount to 8.89 million euros, with a cost of 80 euros per day per police officer, and it is expected that the security forces will stay in two 4-star tourist complexes, also with swimming pools. , beach, restaurant and recreational facilities.
The high cost of the plan has also been criticized, for which an expenditure of 800 million euros is expected in five years, while the centers of Shëngjin and Gjader have been without migrants for two weeks, although they are closely populated of 300 workers: translators, cleaners, medical and nursing staff, and police officers, according to the same sources
