Forty men of various nationalities arrive onboard an Italian navy ship in the northern port of Shengjin in Albania.
Italy has sent 40 asylum seekers awaiting deportation to Albania, where they will be held in Italian-run detention centres until they are repatriated to their home countries.
The two facilities were opened last October as processing centres for potential asylum seekers intercepted at sea, in an experimental scheme closely watched by the rest of the European Union.
But in an attempt to salvage a costly programme beset by legal challenges, the Italian government decided in late March that they would now primarily serve as repatriation facilities to hold migrants due to be sent back to their home countries.
On Friday, 40 men of various nationalities arrived on board an Italian navy ship in the northern port of Shengjin, according to Italian media.
From there, they will be transferred to a nearby centre in Gjader, a former military base surrounded by a high fence under camera surveillance.
It is not clear how long they will remain in Albania. Under Italian law, asylum seekers whose residence claims have not been successful can be detained for up to 18 months while awaiting deportation.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni had signed a deal with her Albanian counterpart Edi Rama to open the two Italian-run centres in Albania in November 2023.
But the Albania deportation scheme had been put on hold after Italian courts repeatedly annulled the transfer of sea migrants, forcing the government to bring them to Italy to assess their legal situation.
Facing criticism from the opposition over the legal confusion, Meloni’s conservative coalition last month decided to use Albania instead as a staging post for people whose asylum bids have already been turned down. Stopping the boats was also a promise of Meloni and her far-right Brothers of Italy party when they came first in a 2022 election.
Italy has a poor record on the repatriation of irregular immigrants. In 2023, just more than 4,000 were forcibly sent home, roughly a third of the number returned by France and Germany, official data show.
Many more simply ignored their expulsion orders, either staying in Italy or heading to another European country.
Meloni originally hoped that the two Albanian camps would be able to process some 36,000 male asylum applicants per year from a government list of safe countries, with the idea of swiftly repatriating them after the likely rejection of their requests.
The government still hopes to revert to its original plan and is waiting on a ruling from the European Union’s Court of Justice, which could compel Italian judges to process new asylum seekers sent to Albania.