The decree provides for the transformation from hotspots to permanence and repatriation centers of the two facilities opened by Italy last October in Shengjin and Gjader as part of an agreement between Rome and Tirana for the fast-track processing of asylum seekers. The decree now goes to the Senate.

Tension in the House between majority and opposition

The green light came after tension was reported in the Lower House following a speech delivered by the lawmaker who drafted the measure, Sara Kelany, a member of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy (FdI) party, who responded to harsh criticism from center-left opposition MPs. In particular, amid protests from opposition lawmakers, Kelany accused the center-left of defending migrants hosted in CPRs.

"Migrants who are detained in such centers are not prudes", said Kelany. "You know this too, they have committed very serious crimes: rapes, thefts, robberies, solicitation of minors, obscene acts in public places in front of children, and you are defending them", she added.

Read AlsoEU monitoring conditions at Italian migrant repatriation centers

Center-left Democratic Party (PD) MP Paolo Ciani was taken to task while some FdI MPS told him to "shut up".

"Rapists, abusers of minors, paedophiles are the criminal CVs of migrants held at the centers. And they are upset because they are transferred from CPRs handcuffed", commented Kelany, speaking about opposition lawmakers.

"Members of the Left are without fail on the wrong side of history and they are constantly invoking humanity, but we don't accept lessons from them", she continued amid protests.

The government in March approved the decree allowing one of the two Italian-run facilities in Albania to be used as a repatriation center (CPR) for irregular migrants, including foreigners who have received an expulsion or a detention order in Italy.

The measure came after the implementation of the protocol between Rome and Tirana for the fast-track processing of asylum seekers at the centers in Albania was stymied by Italian courts.

Read AlsoRights organization points out 'serious issues' with Italy's repatriation center in Albania

'A violation of fundamental rights', says Tavolo Asilo

Tavolo Asilo e Immigrazione (TAI), the umbrella group representing over 40 organizations active in the fields of international protection, migrants' rights and migration policies, said that with the approval by the Lower House of the Albania decree, "Parliament legitimises the extraterritorial detention of migrant people."

"(This) system, which, as shown by the reports gathered through the monitoring carried out by various delegations of the Tavolo Asilo e Immigrazione in Albania, is opaque, without guarantees and incompatible with the principles of the rule of law", the group added.

A delegation from Tavolo Asilo e Immigrazione is currently in Gjadër, in cooperation with MPs.

"Basic information, with the numbers of people detained and those taken back to Italy, has been denied by Italian authorities", explained the group.

"Also unknown are the criteria according to which the people to be transferred are selected, in the constant absence of official transfer measures. The conversations we had with some of the people detained confirm disquieting elements: nobody was preventively informed of the transfer, and nobody was in possession of a measure ordering it. People were suddenly taken from CPRs in Italy to the port of Brindisi" to be transferred to Albania.

Read AlsoEU monitoring conditions at Italian migrant repatriation centers

"Everybody said they had plastic handcuffs on their wrists when they travelled, which were removed only shortly before reaching the port of Shengjin, and therefore out of the media's sight. The people we listened to over the past few days also spoke about frequent tensions in the center and that people harmed themselves, with the number of critical events, or situations in which the safety of detainees was at risk, reaching 42 in 34 days," it continued.

According to TAI, "confirming the juridical weakness of the project, which is uselessly punitive, a justice of the peace in Rome just ordered the release of a citizen held in Gjader and raised a few relevant issues that relate to the constitutional legitimacy of CPR detentions, noting that there is no real legal control based on uniform rights and laws, as instead provided for other detention regimes, on which the Constitutional Court is expected to rule."

TAI believes that the entire operation regarding the detention of migrants in Albania represents a "suspension of the law, as well as a violation of fundamental rights" and that the mechanism to transfer migrants to Albania has "significant and unjustified economic costs."