Italy resumes policy of sending its unwanted migrants to Albania

Dozens of unwanted migrants who managed to reach Italy after crossing the Mediterranean Sea are being sent to Albania as Italy’s controversial offshoring and outsourcing policy resumes.

It comes after a two month pause in Italy sending migrants to Albania after legal challenges.

Italy’s Interior Ministry said on Saturday that 49 migrants were on board the navy ship Cassiopea en route to the port of Shengjin.

The government’s policy says all migrants sent to Albania must be adult males who are in good mental and physical health and are from safe countries it said, adding that the 49 migrants met those requirements.

The ministry also said that 53 other migrants had quickly produced their own passports to prove their nationality was of a state deemed not safe by Italy. By doing this they hope to avoid being transferred to Albania.

After being processed in Shengjin ports the migrants will be transferred to the detention centre in Gjader.

Italy contradicts the Europe Court of Justice’s ruling

The European Court of Justice has ruled that a migrant’s asylum application cannot be fast-tracked if the country that they come from is not “wholly safe”. Both Bangladesh and Egypt were not judged to be wholly safe, according to the ECJ ruling.

However, Rome insisted the two are safe, along with 17 other states, and in December Italy’s Supreme Court ruled that the government can legally use its list of safe countries.

So far in January 1,750 migrants have reached Italy, which is significantly more than in January 2024 when there were 1,300.