Albanian lawmakers on Thursday ratified a migration deal with Italy under which it will build processing centres for migrants sent on to its Balkan neighbour across the Adriatic Sea.
It is the first example of a non-European Union country accepting migrants on behalf of an EU nation, and is part of an EU-wide campaign to clamp down on irregular immigration that has fuelled a rise in the popularity of the far right.
Seventy-seven deputies in the 140-seat parliament voted in favour of the deal, announced in November, under which Italy will open two camps in EU-aspirant Albania, one of Europe’s poorest and least developed countries.
“Albania is standing together with Italy by choosing to act like an EU member state,” Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama wrote on social media platform X following parliament’s vote.
“The Parliament today ratified the agreement of cooperation against illegal migration between Albania and Italy! Albania is standing together with Italy by choosing to act like an EU member state and agreeing to share a burden that Europe should face united as a whole family in the face of a daring challenge that transcends traditional left and right divides. By working together to find the right answers, rather than using this issue as fuel for political infighting that only increases anxiety among the people of our shared continent and makes our collective future more uncertain. No country can solve such a challenge alone, no rhetoric or quick fixes can change its magnitude, and no old glories or past ways of thinking can provide an escape from facing what is coming in all fronts. Only a stronger, braver, and more sovereign Europe loyal to itself can“, said Prime Minister Edi Rama
Both camps would be built on Albania’s northern Adriatic coast. One would screen migrants on arrival and a second would hold them while asylum applications are processed. Migrants would then either be allowed to enter Italy or be repatriated.
The agreement was challenged in Albania’s Constitutional Court by the main opposition Democratic Party, which argued that it broke the constitution by ceding territorial and state power on Albanian soil to another country.
The Constitutional Court rejected the claims and gave a green light for the deal last month. The European Commission has said that the Italian plans do not breach EU law.
/Argumentum.al
