In a statement, the non-profit organization strongly criticized the recent Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Italy and Albania, which will see tens of thousands of migrants who were rescued in the Mediterranean housed in closed centers in Albania, while authorities assesses their asylum requests.

"The policies of externalizing borders are a failure and counterproductive to the protection of people on the move. They have encouraged human trafficking and made crossings more dangerous," said the statement published on the NGO's website on November 8.

Under the agreement announced earlier this week by Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni, migrants rescued or intercepted by Italian authorities will be transferred to Albania – which is not part of the European Union and is therefore not bound by its human rights laws.

The move comes in addition to recent tougher laws and policies on migration in Italy, such as assigning more distant ports which are harder for NGO ships to reach from their search and rescue missions, accelerated border procedures, and the reduction of safeguards for unaccompanied minors, Emergency said.

'Albania not bound to respect rights'

The statement said that the Italy-Albania agreement is "in reality, ...a way to block migrants from arriving on Italian soil – and therefore European soil – to ask for asylum, as required by European and international law. (This is) yet another attack on asylum rights and the provisions of Article 10 of our Constitution."

While the two countries have promised to comply with European and international law, the 36,000 migrants who may be detained in Albania will not have the right to their asylum request decided by an Italian authority, and the right to appeal in the event of a rejected application will be "theoretical," the NGO said.

Emergency also criticized the detention of asylum seekers in the new closed centers. "Detention should be permitted only as a last resort and after a decision by a judge," the statement said.

Despite providing "on paper" for such things as the right to legal support, "in reality, it is practically impossible for these rights to be respected," according to the NGO.

Failure to consider vulnerable migrants

The statement by Emergency also raises concerns such as who would be responsible for determining which asylum seekers were "vulnerable" and therefore to be exempted from the outsourcing plan.

“All people rescued at sea should reach a safe place in the shortest possible time because they are shipwrecked before they are migrants," the NGO says.

"Everyone should be considered vulnerable and receive dignified treatment and adequate protection in compliance with international and community law."

'Illegal and unworkable'

Emergency is not the only NGO to criticize Italy's new plan. The human rights organization Amnesty International said on November 7 that the deal was "illegal and unworkable."

Elisa De Pieri, Amnesty's regional researcher said: "People rescued at sea by Italian authorities, including those seeking safety in Europe, are under Italian jurisdiction and cannot be taken to another country before their asylum request and individual circumstances have been examined. It is as simple as that."

Amnesty said that the deal could amount to "refoulement". Refoulement is the practice of sending anyone to a country where they are at risk of human rights violations. Protection from refoulement is a basic right of asylum seekers and refugees. Non-refoulement is a core principle of international refugee law, as part of customary international law, it is binding on all States.

The Italian government has announced that the centers in Albania will be closed, but Italy's foreign minister Antonio Tajani told the news agency Reuters on Thursday (November 9) that the Albanian centers would "not be Italy's Guantanamo." Referring to the camps in Cuba that the US used to detain suspected Islamic terrorists. Tajani added that the agreement was a "normal humanitarian accord."