Italy opens Albanian migrant centers

European Union member Italy will soon start sending some of the migrants it intercepts in international waters to controversial processing centers in non-member nation Albania.

The migrants will all be adult males, and a small percentage of the total number Italy intercepts trying to illegally cross the Mediterranean Sea from Africa in the hope of entering the EU to claim refugee status.

They will be held in two centers while their applications are processed, something that will usually take around a month.

Italy's far-right government officially opened the centers on Friday, after several months of delays caused by structural problems.

Fabrizio Bucci, Italy's ambassador to Albania, said the first migrants should arrive soon.

"As of today, the two centers are ready and operational," the Associated Press quoted him as saying during a news conference at the port of Shengjin, on Albania's Adriatic coast.

One of the centers is adjacent to the port and comprises housing, a health center, a detention center, and offices. The other, a 20-hectare site 22 kilometers inland, will accommodate migrants while their asylum requests are processed. People who are unsuccessful with their claims will be deported directly from Albania.

Bucci said migrants will arrive at the port without ever setting foot in Italy, something the government hopes will deter some from undertaking perilous journeys from North Africa.

The arrangement was agreed by Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her Albanian counterpart, Edi Rama, in November 2023 and will last for five years. Under the deal, which will cost Italy around 670 million euros ($730 million) throughout its term, as many as 3,000 migrants a month will be processed in Albania.

The centers will be run by Italy, but guarded by Albania.

Italy has vowed not to send vulnerable people, including women, children, old people, and those who are ill, for processing in Albania. Rome has also said it will not separate men from their families.

While some charities and human rights groups have criticized the arrangement for its potential to obscure oversight and lead to human rights abuses, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen hailed it as an example of "out-of-box thinking" that could help the EU tackle its problem of mass illegal migration. United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer has also expressed interest in it.

While the centers were still empty as of the weekend, the Italian news agency ANSA quoted Italy's Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi on Saturday as saying migrants will begin arriving in days.

"We realistically expect the first people will be taken to the centers in Albania next week," he said. "There is no barbed wire, there is health care. Everyone can apply for international protection and obtain it within days."