Only a few hours after the final go-ahead by the Senate, the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI) firmly rejected an agreement between Italy and Albania on migrants. The agreement is the main pillar of a strategy that Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her government drew up with the aim of halting migrant arrivals in Italy, in parallel with new relations with African countries as part of the Mattei Plan, the Italian development plan for Africa unveiled by the Meloni government at the end of January.

'Inability' to build widespread reception system

The Italian prime minister urged her ministers to continue dialogue in particular with North African countries, though comments made by the CEI migration commission chief did not pass unnoticed. The upper levels of the government downplayed the criticism of the center-right government's plans to open two migrant repatriation centers in Albania.

"Today the Senate approved the Albania-Italy agreement for the detention of migrants that the Coast Guard will save at sea, after 673 million euros in ten years up in smoke due to the inability to build a widespread reception system in our country, which ranks 16th in Europe in the reception of asylum seekers compared to the number of inhabitants," said Msgr. Gian Carlo Perego, president of the Italian Episcopal Conference's Commission for Migration and Migrants, on Thursday.

Also read: Albania's Constitutional Court approves Italian migrant deal

Perego added that the 673 million euros had been "thrown into the sea due to the inability to govern a phenomenon, that of forced migration, which we pretend to block, but which is growing year by year". He also noted that Italy is in 16th place in Europe for asylum seeker reception in relation to the number of inhabitants in the country.

The agreement, which was strongly backed by the government majority and has now been ratified by the Parliament, provides for the construction of a migrant identification center in the Albanian hinterland that will be able to host "up to 3,000 people", plus a smaller center for initial reception at the Shengiin port, where Italian vessels carrying migrants rescued at sea will dock. That money, Perego said, "could have not only revived the lives of many people, but also the life of our communities. Six hundred and seventy-three million euros would have meant jobs and revenue."

Foreign Minister Tajani calls it 'money well spent'

Defending the worth of the government initiative was Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, convinced that the money is not being "thrown into the sea" and that it is being "spent well to deal with the migration issue with a country that is a candidate to become an EU member" state.

Fratelli d'Italia (FdI)'s chairman for Senate Constitutional Affairs Alberto Balboni told Perego that he should, "before criticizing the Italian parliament for the laws that it legitimately approves, instead focus on clearing up whether it is true -- as an investigation published by Panorama claims -- that Fondazione Migrantes actually paid 20,000 euros to Mare Jonio, the association led by Casarini, a fan of Toni Negri and under investigation for aiding and abetting illegal immigration."

The migration issue remains a thorn in the prime minister's side. She has repeatedly admitted that the results so far have not been equal to the efforts exerted amid concerns that the migrant arrivals may rise in the near future -- especially from Sudan via Tripolitania -- though figures from the last few months give "small signs of hope", like the "significant drop in migrant arrivals in the past four months", a -41% decrease compared with the same period in 2023.

Meloni has said that, for now, it is necessary to bring in the Mattei Plan and to strengthen collaboration with "Tunisia and Libya, well aware of the differences between Tripolitania and Cirenaica."

Also read: Italian PM defends Albania accord amid opposition outcry