The agreement on migrants between Italy and Albania seems doomed to failure. An Albanian city still wants this project to succeed.

When the small village of Gjadër in northwest Albania learned that a migrant detention center was to be built on a decommissioned military air base, many residents were dismayed.

Aleksander Preka, who runs a local shop and cafe in the village, said his neighbors were alarmed. They didn’t know what to expect – some even talked about “criminals” moving into the area, he recalls.

Preka, who lived in Greece for several years, said he tried to reassure them.

“I told them to talk to their children who have emigrated and they will tell them there is no need to worry,” he said. “This will bring more diversity to the region.”

Most of his neighbors, he said, have embraced the idea that a new multimillion-dollar facility could bring much-needed commercial activity to the village, where the population has dropped from 2,000 to about 700 in recent years.

However, a year later, the center remains empty while the broader migration deal between Italy and Albania that led to its development looks increasingly uncertain. Human rights groups have called the proposal cruel and a possible violation of international law. The project was challenged in Italian courts. But Gjadër residents still hope the facility will become operational and help breathe new life into the village.

Preka explained that initially the construction of the center attracted workers from all over Albania, many of whom stayed in the village and ate at local cafes. Local residents also found work there, he said, with much better wages than they would normally earn in the small town.

But months after work began, villagers noticed that a 20-foot-high steel fence was being erected around the facility. We quickly learned that it would be a closed camp.

Residents were very unhappy, Preka said. Not only would the asylum seekers not be able to enter the village as planned, but it also made them think about how Albanians might be treated when they emigrate abroad.

“Everyone who comes here is looking for a better life or a job, and we must accept them like everyone else, just like our children were accepted when they emigrated,” he said.

Preka said he was disappointed to see the number of new visitors to the area dwindle as construction work on the camp was completed.

Sunday is emerged that dozens of police officers and social workers deployed in the camp have since returned to Italy. Preka still hopes the deal doesn’t fall apart. He said that for a while, the village felt invigorated.

If the asylum seekers eventually come, Preka said, “I hope they will also be allowed to integrate among us.”

Returned to Italy

When Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni signed an agreement in November 2023 to screen asylum seekers in Albania, she announcement This is a major step forward in meeting Europe’s migration challenge.

The far-right leader came to power thanks to his anti-migrant stance. Under the five-year plan, Italy would operate two migrant centers on territory belonging to Albania, a third country, with the capacity to screen up to 3,000 people per month. The cost to the Italian government has been estimated at more than $830 million.

The International Rescue Committee has sentenced the plan, arguing that moving people to closed centers far from EU soil puts at risk the fundamental human right to seek asylum. International amnesty called it is a “cruel experience which taints the Italian government”.

In October, a small group of asylum seekers rescued at sea by an Italian ship off the Italian coast were taken to the port of Shëngjin in northern Albania.

Days later, a court in Rome ruled that the 12 men from Bangladesh and Egypt should be returned to Italy because their home countries were not considered safe enough for repatriation.

Under Meloni agreementMigrants sent to Albania must be adult men traveling without family members and come from countries considered “safe”.

A few weeks later, seven asylum seekers brought to Albania were returned to Italy again following a second court ruling, a decision criticized by the Italian government. The Rome court has now referred the case to the European Court of Justice for an opinion.

Matteo Salvini, Italian Deputy Prime Minister, said the decision was “another political condemnation, not against the government, but against the Italians and their security.”

Meloni vowed to fight the decision.

Edison Lika, a human rights activist from Tirana, the Albanian capital, said he was relieved by Rome’s decision, but ultimately said the men should never have been brought to Albania in the first place.

Lika is one of many Albanians who wonder why the country’s Prime Minister, Edi Rama, signed the agreement with Meloni.

According to Lika, there is no real financial benefit for the Balkan country, but Rama may be trying to stay in the good books of European leaders.

An application for EU membership

Over the past two years, several prominent figures in Rama’s inner circle have been accused of corruptionnotably in the case of the construction and operation of a waste incinerator in Tirana worth $100 million.

Journalist Besar Likmeta, with the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network in Tirana, said that the Italy-Albania migration agreement did not bring any benefit to Albania but that it served Rama.

“He wanted to gain favor with Giorgia Meloni and make friends with other political leaders. European political leaders would then turn a blind eye to its corruption. It’s very simple,” Likmeta explained.

Albania is currently in accession negotiations with the EU for membership of the bloc.

Rama said the country hoped to join by 2030, but the state’s reputation for corruption remains a considerable stumbling block. International Transparency prices Albania ranks 98 out of 180 countries on its corruption index. And, a report from the US State Department in 2023 concluded that “corruption existed in all branches and levels of government” in Albania.

Government critics said Rama may have hoped his deal with Italy would improve the country’s chances of joining the EU.

In December, European Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen welcomed the plan, calling the agreement “aget off the beaten track » by Albania and Italy.

The Albanian government said the deal was a “gesture of solidarity” with Italy.

Since the 1990s, when the communist regime fell in Albania, thousands of people have gone to live and work in Italy. MP Toni Gogu, a member of Rama’s Socialist Party, said Albania was simply returning the favor.

“We were the immigrants of the early 1990s and the Italians opened their homes to us. We have a long and fruitful friendship treaty with Italy,” he said.

He said Albania wanted to provide all possible assistance to help Europe address its migration challenges.

Lika said that if the Albanian government was truly concerned about Europe’s migration problem, it would start by helping its own people.

“In the last ten years, almost 500,000 Albanians have emigrated,” he said. “If Rama really wants to fight immigration, he should improve conditions in his own country so that people are not forced to leave.”