Italy will resume in the coming days he transfer of migrants to the controversial detention centers it built on Albanian territory to manage possible repatriations, after the courts forced them to be emptied and, in response, the government of Giorgia Meloni issued a decree-law to protect them.
The ship of the Libra Navywho was responsible for the first transfer of migrants to Albania three weeks ago, “will leave again on the high seas in the coming days”, sources from the Interior Ministry confirmed to EFE on Saturday.
According to local media, the call “Operation in Albania“It could start again next Monday, when the ship will be 20 miles from the southern island of Lampedusa, the gateway for people crossing the Mediterranean to Italy.
For the moment, no precise date can be established, because “it will also depend on the state of the sea and the departures” of barges carrying migrants in the Mediterranean, official sources indicated to Efe.
In any case, the ship will rescue those found in international waters and will transfer to Albania those who meet the requirements established 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 could resume three weeks after the first failed transfer to Shengjin from 16 first migrants from Egypt and Bangladesh: four of them had to be returned immediately because they were minors or “vulnerable” and two days later, the Rome court did not validate the retention of the twelve others and ordered their return to Italy.
The judicial decision, based on a European judgment and which affirmed that migrants sent to Albania They came from “dangerous countries”provoked the indignation of the government, which approved a decree to establish by law the list of countries to which an immigrant must not escape and thus protect the controversial centers of Albania.
Meloni Strategy
THE Meloni Strategywhich consisted of establishing a list of “safe countries” by 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) finding that it had violated European legislation.
But the far-right prime minister decided to continue 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 its project for European countries and a favorable nod from the President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyenis strongly criticized by the opposition.
latest scandal
The latest controversy on this subject arose this Friday, when local media revealed that housing nearly 300 Italian police officers Those responsible for managing the centers will cost nearly 9 million euros per year.
Accommodation costs are 8.89 million euroswith 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 equipped 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 over five years, while the centers of Shëngjin and Gjader, they have been without migrants for two weeksalthough populated by nearly 300 workers: translators, maintenance workers, medical and nursing staff and police officers, according to the same sources.
