VOA: The agreement on migrants between Tirana and Rome arouses controversy

2023-11-07 19:28:00, Aktualitet CNA

In Albania, the opposition criticized the agreement signed yesterday in Rome between the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and the Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, which envisages the establishment of two centers for the reception of migrants on the territory of Albania, raising doubts about the lack of transparency around it. The Albanian Helsinki Committee told the Voice of America that a fait accompli, without prior consultation, raises questions. The European Commission also stated today that it has requested detailed information from Italy, since it is a matter of an agreement that happens for the first time between a member country and a non-member state.

The agreement with Italy provides that the Albanian side will offer only parts of its territory where two centers with a maximum capacity of 3,000 places will be set up for migrants from North Africa, who are rescued at sea by Italian military ships or those of the Guardia di Finanza. Every expense is covered by the Italian side, while the Albanian police undertakes to guarantee the security in the outer perimeter of the two centers, one in Shengjin and the other in Gjadër.

For the chairman of the Democratic Party, Lulzim Basha, it is unacceptable that while Albanians are moving away from bad governance, according to him, the borders are opened for illegal immigrants. "The first task is to come and make the transparency of who gave him the mandate to negotiate, with any country. Italy is a friend, ally, partner country, no doubt, but these are national interests, you cannot on the one hand expel the Albanians, on the other hand open the border for illegal immigrants. On what basis? Under what conditions?" said Mr. Basha.

In the afternoon, the Democratic Party announced that its deputy Kreshnik Çollaku has requested an interview with the Prime Minister "to make transparent, before the Albanian citizens, the reasons that have led the Prime Minister of Albania to this self-offering, without any public consultation, when the European countries have rejected it, despite the capacities to manage this flow of immigrants".

Former Prime Minister Sali Berisha said that according to him, Mr. Rama "does not have the moral nor legal authority" to sign such an agreement, recalling that between Italy and Albania there is a joint act signed many years ago: "We, recognize the agreement we signed with Italy to return to Albania those foreign immigrants who can pass from Albania to Italy. Otherwise, I tell my Italian friends, don't forget that according to Eurostat statistics, from 2014 to 2021, more than 100,000 Albanians left every year for Italy, Greece and the Schengen area".

Prime Minister Rama declared yesterday that Albania is indebted to Italy, and that for this reason, he would not have signed such an agreement with any other country. But the democratic deputy speaker of the Parliament, Agron Gjekmarkaj, expressed today through a status on Facebook that despite the gratitude to Italy, according to him, Albania is not ready "yet to take such "hospitable" steps, highlighting the migrant crisis which "Italy is barely managing it amid many controversies there and we have the right to doubt a lot about this."

The Albanian Helsinki Committee told the Voice of America that "the question that arises in the conditions where this agreement seems to become actual, without any comprehensive consultative process, is how Albania will be able to help its neighbors without providing stable and inherent results regarding this phenomenon that has affected it itself, as a transit country", said director Erida Skëndaj, adding that "Refugee camps in the countries of the European Union in many cases have shown a series of problems in terms of respecting the rights of these citizens, regarding the inadequate conditions and treatment that violated their human dignity, the serious abuses that happened to them, their use or exploitation by criminal organizations. In the Albanian context, all these risks are amplified and increased".

According to Ms. Skëndaj "the passage of these citizens from Italy to Albania cannot be objectively justified, if we take into consideration the geographical space of each country, their status in relation to the European Union, economic and social development, hosting capacities but also the level of respect for human rights as well as the tasks that were left to Albania by the European Commission in the last screening report"

Yesterday's agreement was followed by numerous controversies in Italy as well. Prime Minister Meloni, who comes from the nationalist right, came to power last year promising to curb migration, but in fact the flows have almost doubled. The Italian opposition raised questions about the risk of violating international norms and conventions, as well as the very usefulness of this act.

The European Commission stated today that "we are in contact with the Italian authorities about the details, because we need to see the details of this agreement and we have asked to have information about them", spokeswoman Anitta Hipper emphasized, explaining that the Commission had previously been aware of agreement and as far as it has been known so far, it does not seem to be similar to the one between Great Britain and Rwanda./ VOA