Albania awaits arrivals in Italy’s migrant deal
In a quiet rural village, a deal with Rome to process thousands of refugees has provoked mixed feelings
It is a picture of bucolic tranquillity: an old woman in a white headscarf herds cows along a country lane as a young man cuts fodder with a scythe and farmers putter past on tractors.
But the gentle pace of life in Gjader, a rural village in northern Albania, is about to be broken after it was announced this week that Italy has been given permission by the Albanian government to build a large migrant detention facility on its outskirts.
Many locals are aghast that the holding centre will accommodate up to 3,000 migrants each month, with 36,000 expected to pass through each year as their asylum applications are assessed by Italian officials.
“People here are not used to seeing foreigners. They’re not happy,” said Niko Rroku, 43. “It feels like when the British sent their convicts to Australia. You don’t know who these migrants are. There could be terrorists.” He speaks almost flawless English, having moved to the UK as a teenager and worked as a builder in St Albans.
Albania may be a country of emigration, with a huge diaspora across the world, but many people are deeply uneasy about the building of the migrant centre – particularly the fact that only men will be housed.
“If it’s only single men coming here, that’s going to be a problem. I’m worried that I’m going to having to start guarding my house in case they try to break in,” said Armondo Hamolli, 30, a hairdresser in the village.
The migrant facility is likely to be built on two disused airstrips that adjoin the village, relics of a military base from the Communist era.
The accord, which has drawn comparisons with the UK’s troubled plan to send migrants to Rwanda, was announced this week by Giorgia Meloni, the Italian prime minister, and Edi Rama,her Albanian counterpart.
Migrants intercepted as they try to cross the Mediterranean from Africa to Italy will be brought by the Italian navy and coastguard to the port of Shengjin in northern Albania, where the Italians will build a reception centre. From there, male migrants will be taken by road about 15 miles to the holding facility in Gjader.
Those that have their asylum applications accepted will be flown back to Italy. Those that are rejected will be repatriated. Italy insists it will process the migrants swiftly and that none of them will remain in the centre for more than 28 days. The plan will cost Italy around €16million
(£14 million) a year.
That is the theory, at least. The initiative has come in for a blizzard of criticism, with politicians in Italy and Albania saying it is fraught with legal, ethical and practical difficulties.
If women and children are not to be sent to the facility, does that mean families will be split? What happens to failed asylum seekers whose home countries refuse to take them back? The migrant centre will be built and operated by the Italians but what are the legalities of Albania ceding extraterritoriality to a foreign power?
Critics in Italy are calling the facility “a Balkan Guantanamo” – a comparison Antonio Tajani, the foreign minister, rejects, insisting it respects EU and international law.
So far this year, more than 145,000 migrants have reached Italy, of whom fewer than 4,000 have been repatriated. Not only will Italy have to build the two migrant facilities in Albania, it will also have to provide police, lawyers, interpreters and medical personnel.
“Do we really think we are going to be able to carry out the procedures of identification and asylum request for each migrant in 28 days when in Italy it takes months?” said Emma Bonino, a former foreign minister and European Commissioner. “We would need to achieve in Albania what we have not managed to achieve for years here in Italy… And if there are delays to their applications [the centre] will become overcrowded.”
Marco Minniti, a former Italian interior minister, said there was an irony that Britain wants to send its immigrants, including Albanians, to Rwanda while Italy wants to send its immigrants to Albania.
The migrant centre is due to operate for five years, with the option of a further five-year extension. Ms Meloni has promised that it will be up and running by the spring, but when Sunday Telegraph visited the site this week there were no signs of construction.
One of the runways is dotted with huge concrete blocks while the other is used by villagers partly as a road and partly as a rubbish dump.
It is not just the villagers of Gjader who are alarmed at the prospect of having the migrant centre on their doorstep. Down on the coast, the inhabitants of Shengjin worry that the image of migrants disembarking in the port will harm tourism.
Shengjin is a hugely popular holiday resort – a phalanx of hotels lines a long arc of sand on a glittering blue bay.
“I think it’s a crazy idea,” said Armand, 29, a plasterer. “I think it could harm the image of the place. A lot of British people are buying apartments here. It’s cheaper than Greece, the food is better and the views are amazing.”
Authorities in the nearby city of Lezhe said they had no idea about the project until they heard about it on television on Monday.
“It depends on how the migrant centre is managed,” said Ermal Pacaj, the centre-Left deputy mayor of the city. “If it goes according to the plan with Italy and there is good security, it will not have an impact. It will be a way for Albania to repay Italy for welcoming and integrating our people as immigrants over the last 30 years. But if things go wrong, we’ll have problems.”
Sali Berisha, an Albanian former prime minister and president who now leads the centre-Right opposition, is a critic of the deal. “I fear it will greatly increase xenophobia in a country that is normally very welcoming,” he said.
“And there is a characteristic of Albania which renders the whole thing more explosive. There’s a lot of illegal people trafficking here. The people who are brought here by Italy could become victims of trafficking.”
He accused the Albanian government of drawing up the deal “in secret, without a mandate” and said it must be referred to Albania’s parliament and constitutional court.
Back in the village of Gjader, not everyone is alarmed by the prospect of the repatriation centre. Many Albanians have experience of emigrating in search of a better life and have sympathy with those who try to reach Europe from North Africa.
“For me there’s nothing wrong with the plan. The migrants will not be staying, they will be passing through,” said Nikolle Voci, a man in his 60s who lived for a time in Australia. “Other countries helped Albanians in the past. Now it’s our turn to help.”
‘Do we really think that we will be able to carry out the procedures for each migrant in just 28 days?’