Migration across the Mediterranean: Italy withdraws staff from refugee camps in Albania

Italy is withdrawing a large proportion of staff from its controversial reception centers for migrants in Albania. As several Italian media outlets unanimously reported, a month and a half after the refugee camps were put into operation, most of the employees of the company Medihospes, which is responsible for the operation and administration of the centers, are leaving Albania this weekend.

Only seven of the company’s employees remain in the camps on Albanian soil. In addition, some Albanian workers, especially medical staff, as well as an unknown number of Italian police officers remain there.

According to the Ansa news agency, the Interior Ministry in Rome reported that the staff had been reduced, but the camps remained open and operational.

Meloni’s plan failed twice

The right-wing government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni had recently failed twice with its plan to have decisions made on the asylum applications of Mediterranean migrants outside the EU. Courts twice in a row lifted the detention of migrants in the camps after authorities stopped them in the Mediterranean on their way to Europe. They were then transferred to Italy.

Italy is the first country in the European Union to set up camps outside the EU borders in order to process asylum applications there in an accelerated procedure and under Italian law. The “Albania model” of Prime Minister Meloni’s right-wing government is controversial. However, other European governments are following it closely.