Italy’s lower chamber of parliament OKs deal with Albania to house migrants during asylum processing
Associated PressROME — Italy’s lower chamber of parliament on Wednesday approved a novel government deal with Albania to house migrants during the processing of their asylum requests, a cornerstone of Premier Giorgia Meloni’s efforts to share the migration burden with the rest of Europe. Meloni and Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama announced the groundbreaking initiative last November, in which Albania would shelter up to 36,000 migrants for a year in two centers while Italy fast-tracks their asylum requests. In a report, she said it amounts to “an ad hoc extra-territorial asylum regime characterised by many legal ambiguities.” Italy’s center-left opposition has branded the deal as an expensive exercise in propaganda ahead of European elections this June and a shameful bid to turn Albania into Italy’s “Guantanamo.” The text of the accord approved Wednesday says the deal would cost Italy nearly 600 million euros over five years, to build and staff the centers in Albania and set up the remote screening processes, money the opposition says could be better used to reinforce Italy’s existing migrant processing centers. Even though only 36,000 migrants a year might be sent to Albania, she said the deal was worth the cost because it would enable Italy’s migrant processing centers to work better and faster to screen candidates for possible asylum, without getting overwhelmed.