Italian
police and social workers leave Albania after staffing empty migrant centres
Centres had
been open for over a month but received just 24 asylum seekers, whose detention
was deemed unlawful
Lorenzo
Tondo in Palermo
Sun 24 Nov
2024 13.51 GMT
Dozens of
Italian police officers and social workers deployed by Italy’s far-right
government in migrant centres in Albania have returned home, after it emerged
that the facilities, praised as a model to reduce refugee arrivals, have been
empty for weeks.
Just over a
month after the much-publicised opening of the multimillion-euro detention
centres for asylum seekers in Albania, which were supposed to receive up to
3,000 men a month, more than 50 police officers were moved back to Italy two
weeks ago while dozens of social workers have left over the weekend, with their
presence in Albania considered “needless”.
Since their
opening on 11 October, only 24 asylum seekers have been sent to the centres in
Albania, with the goal of repatriating them to their countries of origin. Five
spent fewer than 12 hours in a detention centre, while the rest stayed for just
over 48 hours.
All were
transferred to Italy after Italian judges deemed it unlawful to detain them in
Albania before repatriation to countries, such as Bangladesh and Egypt,
considered “safe” by Rome. In doing so the judges were upholding a 4 October
ruling by the EU’s court of justice (ECJ) that a country outside the bloc could
not be declared safe unless its entire territory was deemed safe.
As a result,
the centres, presented by the European Commission president, Ursula von der
Leyen, as a new model for how to establish processing and detention centres for
asylum seekers outside the EU, have been empty for more than a month.
At a time
when the government is struggling to balance the budget – cutting funds for
education, health and social security – opposition parties have described the
deal, that will cost about €1bn (£830m) over five years, as a “financial
disaster”.
“Mission
accomplished!” said Riccardo Magi, the president of the leftwing opposition
party Più Europa (More Europe). “The government has succeeded in the effort to
repatriate. Migrants? No, Italian operators sent to Albania, who will be
returning home by the weekend. The government first wasted a huge sum of public
funds, then with the centres emptied, brought back some police personnel to
Italy, and now even social workers are returning home. This is an epochal
failure.”
The scheme
has led to a row between the government and judges, who have been accused by
far-right parties of obstructing the project.
Nicola
Gratteri, the chief prosecutor of Naples and one of the most authoritative
magistrates in Italy, said in a TV interview this week: “We must stop attacking
magistrates just because we don’t like a decision.
“I don’t
want to give a political judgment, but I say that at this moment in Albania
there are 250 law enforcement officers who are hardly doing anything. It’s a
waste to keep 250 police officers on a mission in Albania, so I think they
should be brought back to Italy where we are struggling with staffing shortages
for thousands of policemen.”
The
government has said the centres in Albania “will remain open and operational”
and that the transfers to Italy have been made according to staffing needs.
However, the credibility of Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, is at stake
after she made immigration a central campaigning issue. In the past she has
criticised predecessors for spending public money on managing the migration
crisis. The transport by sea on an Italian military ship of just eight men who
arrived in Albania over a weekend in mid November cost €250,000 (£205,000) –
more than €31,000 per asylum seeker onboard.
Elisabetta
Piccolotti, an MP for the Green and Left Alliance party, said: “The government
has failed knowing it would fail. They have spent a mountain of money and
played with people’s rights. This will remain in history as a shameful page for
our country.”
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