Albania says only Italy is allowed to operate migrant asylum centers in the country

TIRANA, Albania — Albania's prime minister on Tuesday said his government had turned down many requests from other European Union countries to take in thousands of asylum-seekers but made an exception for Italy.

An Italian navy ship was expected to dock at the Albanian port of Shengjin with the first group of 16 migrants who were intercepted in international waters and whose asylum applications will be processed in two centers in Albania instead of in Italy, under a five-year agreement between the two countries.

Prime Minister Edi Rama, speaking in Luxembourg at an EU conference, repeated that no other country will be able to operate asylum centers in Albania.

He said Albania felt an expression of gratitude for the tens of thousands of Albanians who were welcomed by Italy when communism fell in 1991, or support extended by Rome during the economic turmoil in 1997 and in the aftermath of the 2019 earthquake.

The Italian naval ship Libra left the port of Lampedusa in southern Italy on Monday with 16 men — 10 from Bangladesh and six from Egypt — who were rescued at sea after departing from Libya, according to the Italian government.

The number of migrants reaching Italy along the central Mediterranean route from North Africa has fallen by 61% in 2024 from 2023. According to the Italian Interior Ministry, as of Oct. 15, 54,129 migrants have arrived in Italy by sea this year, compared to 138,947 in the same period last year.

Under a five-year deal signed last November by Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni and Rama, up to 3,000 migrants picked up by the Italian coast guard in international waters each month will be sheltered in Albania. They will be screened initially on board the ships that rescue them before being sent to Albania for further screening.

The first center in Shengjin, 66 kilometers (40 miles) northwest of the capital, Tirana, will be used for screening newcomers and the other facility, about 22 kilometers (14 miles) to the east near the former military airport in Gjader, will accommodate migrants during the processing of their asylum requests.

Italy has agreed to welcome those who are granted asylum. Those whose applications are rejected face deportation directly from Albania.

The controversial agreement to outsource the housing of asylum-seekers to a non-EU member country has been hailed by some countries that, like Italy, are suffering a heavy burden of refugees.

The agreement was endorsed by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as an example of “out-of-box thinking” in tackling migration into the EU, but has been slammed by human rights groups.

“This dangerous model is not a sustainable solution, and must never become a blueprint for the EU’s approach to asylum and migration,” the International Rescue Committee said a statement.

Susanna Zanfrini of the group's office in Italy said the asylum centers are "costly, cruel and counterproductive, and have no place in a humane and sustainable asylum system.”

Meloni and her right-wing allies have long demanded that European countries share more of the migration burden. She has held up the Albania agreement as an innovative solution to a problem that has vexed the EU for years.

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Associated Press writer Patricia Thomas in Rome contributed to this report.