The first military ship chartered by Italy to transport asylum seekers to Albania has arrived at its destination, the result of an agreement that the president of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen, now plans to study for its possible application in other scenarios and that Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni claimed Tuesday as a “good example.”
16 migrants arrived on this first Navy ship – ten Egyptians and six Bangladeshis – rescued last Sunday in the waters of the Mediterranean Sea. The ship has arrived at the Albanian port of Shengjin, where a procedure will be carried out prior to the transfer to the center of Gjader, one of the two contemplated in this bilateral agreement, according to the AdnKronos news agency.
Meloni stressed before the Italian Parliament that it is a “new” and “brave” solution, despite the fact that it has clashed with the misgivings of Human Rights organizations. The agreement contemplates that migrants wait on Albanian soil for a decision on whether or not they have the right to enter the territory of Italy and, by extension, the EU.
The president of the European Commission has evoked the Italian case in a letter sent to the leaders of the member states and in which she calls, among other issues, to open the debate on the creation of deportation centers. “With the start of the protocol operations between Italy and Albania we will be able to draw lessons from this experience in practice,” says the head of the community Executive, on the eve of a meeting of leaders that will largely revolve around migration.