Court Challenges Slow Italy's Out-of-Country Migrant Transfer Centers

The patrol vessel Libra is being used for the direct transfers to Albania (Marina Militare file image)

The Italian government has set up two out-of-country processing centers for maritime migrants who have been rescued near Italy, hoping to transfer the burden of asylum claims away from domestic shores by preventing the claimants from ever landing. However, court challenges have significantly slowed the startup process. After a month in operation, only 20 migrants have been transferred, and none have yet completed processing.

The centers are located near the port of Shengjin, Albania, and they are central pieces of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's counter-migration plan. Under a five-year agreement with the Albanian government, Italy will fund, staff and operate the centers on Albanian soil. Albania will provide the land and the external security, but the centers are Italian in all other respects.

Meloni's government invested nearly $700 million in the two sites in hopes of reducing the influx of migrants arriving from Libyan and Tunisian shores. In full operation, the facilities are designed to handle up to 3,000 migrants every month - and are intended to make many would-be migrants reconsider the costly and dangerous voyage to Italy.

"The most useful element of this project is that it can represent an extraordinary tool of deterrence for illegal migrants destined to reach Europe," Meloni said in June.

So far, the project is off to a bumpy start. Last month, the first group of 12 migrants had just been transferred to Albania when an Italian court ruled that they had to be shipped back to Italy. Their trip to an out-of-country processing center was unlawful, the court ruled, because the migrants' home countries - Egypt and Bangladesh - could not be considered safe places for them to be repatriated.

The Italian government is appealing the court decision, and in the meantime, it has dispatched a second group of migrants to be processed at Shëngjin. Eight people who were rescued in the Central Mediterranean were transferred to the Italian Navy vessel Libra, and are expected to arrive early on Friday. For legal purposes, Meloni's administration has designated 22 "safe" nations of origin, and has selected only migrants with these nationalities for the special transfer.