Italy's original plan to run facilities in Albania to process asylum requests is still incomplete one year after it was launched due to the obstacles of various nature it has met so far.
The plan to run migrant centers in Albania announced just over a year ago by Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni has so far remained uncompleted. The great resources spent for the plan, the few effective repatriations and strong political controversies with repeated rulings issued by Italian judges halting operations have hindered the project. The government is aiming to relaunch it under the new European legal framework.
However, the road remains full of obstacles even though the EU Justice and Home Affairs Council on December 8 streamlined repatriation procedures for irregular migrants with the simplification and acceleration of repatriation procedures, enabling EU members to set up repatriation hubs in third countries.
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Low numbers despite significant investment in five years
The initial plan provided for at least 3,000 people to be processed every month for a maximum of 36,000 a year. The objective was to implement procedures for the fast-track processing of asylum requests, but last April, the Italian-run facility of Gjader was turned into a repatriation center after Italian courts failed to validate the detention of migrants taken to the centres in Albania.
Since then, a few hundred migrants have been held there, and repatriations have been limited, with only a few dozen carried out.
The project is set to cost nearly one billion euros in five years. The Italian-run facilities set up include a center for asylum seekers, which can accommodate up to 880 people, a CPR repatriation center for 144 and a prison for 20.
A hotspot was built in the port of Schengjin, designed to host migrants taken by Italian Navy vessels after being intercepted in the central Mediterranean. However, all the attempted transfers have failed after judges of first instance and then Rome appeals court judges did not validate the detentions, ruling that the countries of provenance of the asylum applicants -- Egypt and Bangladesh -- could not be considered safe for repatriation.
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ECJ appeal on protocol between Rome and Tirana
In August, the European Court of Justice ruled that a government can designate a third country as safe with a decree, but only if the choice can be subject to a judge's approval. And until the European rules in the Pact on migration come into force on June 12, 2026, no country can be considered safe if it fails to guarantee the protection of its entire population.
Appeals Court judges in Rome have referred a new issue regarding the protocol between Rome and Tirana over the Italian-run centres on Albanian territory to the European Court of Justice.
The case concerns the possibility for Italy to sign an agreement on the centres in Albania, given that asylum is regulated at a European level.
It remains to be seen whether the green light to the European Pact on Migration and Asylum will be sufficient to overcome the legal impasse that has so far halted the Albania project and whether the facilities will become fully operational, as pledged by Meloni.
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