Thewesternbalkans.
According to different media, including Euractiv, the Italian Council of Ministers amended on 28 March the Italy-Albania Protocol, allowing the transfer of migrants with validated or extended detention orders – already in Italy – to the Albanian Gjader centre.
Originally, under the Italy-Albania protocol signed back in 2023, the Italy-funded and constructed centers in Albania were meant to process and return under a “fast-track” procedure adult male migrants from “safe countries” rescued at sea. The centers have been launched last October.
Currently, Albania hosts two facilities. Shengjin for screenings and Gjader, where migrants await asylum decisions and get returned. Gjader, which also housed a prison section.
The centers have remained empty after Italian courts repeatedly struck down detention orders, challenging the designation of certain countries as “safe” and referring the cases to the European Court of Justice.
Now, the government has decided to kick off the protocol again, making the Gjader facility into a full-fledged “repatriation detention center” in order to circumvent the legal challenges.
Under Italian law, repatriation detention centers known as “CPR” hold irregular migrants awaiting identification and deportation, with stays lasting up to 18 months.
Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi assured that the Gjader centre will be swiftly reactivated but “will not lose its functions or be fundamentally altered.”
According to Piantedosi, the Gjader centre will be “another CPR, just outside national territory.”
To ease concerns, he noted that migrants in Italian repatriation centres are already moved between facilities that are sometimes farther apart than a transfer to Albania, insisting that Gjader would operate as if on Italian soil.
Under current EU Return rules, member states can only transfer irregular migrants to third countries if they voluntarily agree to the move.
Piantedosi confirmed that the European Commission has given the green light to repurpose the Albanian facility. “The review with the European Commission has concluded positively, allowing us to proceed,” he announced during a press conference on Friday.
Legal experts warned that the new move raises new serious legal concerns, particularly regarding Albania’s transfer of sovereignty to Italy. Moving migrants to a third country could breach international agreements and create significant legal challenges.
The decision follows the new proposal from the EU Commission on returns unveiled at the beginning of March. The new law allows for the member states to explore the concept of so-called “return hubs” outside the EU bloc.
The Italian government move comes as Italy awaits the European Court of Justice’s ruling on its safe third country policy, expected for May.
Comments: Too important a vision is laid down in the functioning of these centers to finally prove unnecessary. Italy’s pilot project on the territory of Albania will serve as an occasion for changes in the European legislation on the matter. We already have a positive opinion on the issue from the President of the European Commission, von der Leyen. There is still a long way to go before the Commission’s proposal becomes law, despite the enthusiasm of its President. On the other hand, the “powerful defender” of the sovereignty of Albania and the Western Balkan countries, Edi Rama, is in an election campaign and is very likely to use the European card as one of his main achievements for the years of the country’s rule.
