Deportation centers in Albania, according to the report, expensive and inefficient

Italy’s government under Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has been on deportation centers abroad since 2023. However, according to an investigation report by the human rights organization “Actionaid” and the University of Bari, the “Albania model” is expensive, ineffective and legally questionable.

The focus of the investigation is the center in Gjader in Northern Alban: Bedding the Rome Prefecture paid 570,000 euros to the operator for five days between October and December 2024, i.e. around 114,000 euros per day. During this time, 20 people were recorded, all of whom were released within hours.

In 2023, Meloni had concluded an agreement with Albania Prime Minister Edi Rama about two camps in Gjader and Shengjin. Migrants who were taken up on the Mediterranean should be distributed between the two countries. Several dishes initially stopped the project.

The report also questions the deportation mechanism. The returns are at the lowest level in years, at the same time hundreds of places are unused in Italian recording centers. Against this background, the attempt to use the center in Gjader is “completely irrational and illogical,” said Fabrizio Coresi of “Actionaid”.

According to the calculations, the construction of 400 places in Gjader and Shengjin cost more than 74 million euros, i.e. around 153,000 euros per place. Further costs were incurred by the accommodation and meals of the police personnel: 528,000 euros for five days of operation.

The “Albania model” is considered the prestige project of the right three coalition. After several defeats, the government issued a new regulation that asylum seekers can be brought to Albania that are already in Italy.

The political scientist Giuseppe Campesi from the University of Bari criticizes this. The use of the detention as an instrument of asylum policy “raises serious questions about the goals of an instrument that has such an impact on people’s fundamental rights.” On August 1, the European Court of Justice wants to decide whether the model is right. In essence, the question of which countries are considered to be safe countries of origin can be deported.

The pressure on Meloni also grows politically. Elly Schlein, chair of the opposition Social Democrats (PD), asked the Prime Minister to apologize. The costs of the project are an “insult to the millions of people who are in trouble today,” said the opposition leader. The project is “pure propaganda on the skin of the weakest”, which is paid for from the pockets of the Italians.

The Italian Ministry of the Interior, on the other hand, defends the model. Accordingly, the system from the past cost the country over four million euros a day in 2022. The agreement with Albania is therefore “a fundamental investment,” it said. As soon as the Albanian facilities are fully in operation, the model will “also be decisive in terms of deterrent.”