The Albanian government reportedly does not intend to offer itself as a host country for future EU efforts to establish so-called return centers for rejected asylum seekers in third countries, according to a German newspaper report.
Germany's weekly Welt am Sonntag newspaper quoted Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama as saying that he would not host "return hubs" in his country.
Rama previously agreed with the government of Italy to host two refugee centers with a similar purpose in 2024, and since that agreement, leaders from several nations had expressed interest in possibly setting up similar centers, but the Albanian authorities have always reiterated that they had a special agreement with Italy alone. However, since that agreement, the facilities have remained largely unoccupied.
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Rama said that he had only agreed to the prior arrangement with Italy since the two countries are particularly close partners. He referred to Italy as Albania's "European counterpart," according to the Welt am Sonntag report.
"But we will say no to others, because building centers in third countries alone is not the solution."
Another reason, for Rama's course may be that Albania is set on eventually becoming part of the European Union, and therefore once that came to pass, they would no longer be considered a "third state."
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EU signs off on return hubs
Last week, the interior ministers of the EU gathered in Luxembourg to formalize the EU Return Regulation, which will govern the way in which these facilities in third countries will operate.
Nearly all member states supported the policy in principle, with only Spain rejecting the policy.
With the plan now formally adopted, EU member states have a framework to reach agreements with third countries to host migrants — mostly failed asylum seekers and those who have committed serious crimes — who cannot be returned to their countries of origin.
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Outsourced migrant facilities likely to be located in Africa
It is expected that by the end of 2026, agreements with partner countries will be signed to host those migrants.
Five EU states — Germany, Austria, Greece, Denmark, and the Netherlands — have taken the lead to push for these facilities as a shared project, with Greece announcing that it might also open its own centers in addition to other such hubs.
Two countries which have been floated as potential destinations are Rwanda and Uganda.
Rwanda, in particular, might be an attractive choice, as a failed plan between the country and the UK to send certain migrants there left behind a great deal infrastructure intended to be used for migrants, which if such a return hub project were to take effect could be potentially taken over.
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with EPD