Italy brought 49 migrants to Albania on Tuesday morning, where they will be detained after being intercepted at sea.
The Italian military ship Cassiopea took them to the Albanian port of Shengjin at 7.30am local time (6.30am GMT), where they will be taken to detention and expulsion centres controversially built under Giorgia Meloni’s Government.
The migrants were found over the weekend in international waters south of the Sicilian island of Lampedusa, the majority of which came from Bangladesh.
Others came from Egypt, The Gambia, and Côte d’Ivoire, but will now be held in processing centres for migrants coming from countries deemed safe and who do not have identity papers.
The Italian Interior Ministry said: “Following the operations to assess the conditions of the intercepted persons, 49 foreign citizens have boarded the ship Cassiopea for transfer to centres in Albania, where the procedures for reception, detention and assessment of individual cases will begin.
“Fifty-three immigrants spontaneously presented their passports to avoid being transferred: a circumstance of particular importance, since it allows for quicker activation of procedures for verifying individual positions, even independently of detention, increasing the chances of proceeding with the repatriation of those who do not have the right to remain in the European Union (EU).”
After being given food, new clothes, and undergoing medical assessments, the most vulnerable migrants will be taken to Italy.
Those that remain in Albania will likely spend the coming weeks in the detention centre of Gjadër, a few miles from the port, where they’ll wait for their asylum applications to be processed.
If their asylum seeker application is rejected, they’ll be moved to a pre-removal detention area inside the centre. The centre also includes a prison for those accused of crimes.
New legislation passed in January required Italian appeals courts to approve the detention of asylum seekers rather than special immigration services.
This attempt at processing asylum seekers in Albania follows two previous failures in October and November, when Italian judges refused to approve the detention of two small groups at the Albanian centres. At the time, the courts ruled that the migrants’ countries of origin weren’t safe enough for them to face the possibility of being sent back.
The cases have been referred to the European Court of Justice, with its hearing on the case scheduled for February 25.