It is ‘a kind of Italian Guantanamo, outside any international standard, outside the European Union (EU)’. And it ‘constitutes a very serious violation of human rights and sacrifices the suffering of real people on the altar of political propaganda’.
The first statement was made by Pierfrancesco Majorino, in charge of migration issues at the national secretariat of the Democratic Party (PD), referring to the detention centres in Albania where migrants arriving in the country are sent.
The second statement was made by Senator Tito Magni of the Alliance between the Green Europe and Italian Left parties (AVS), referring to the protocol signed between Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her Albanian counterpart, Edi Rama.
It all started in the second week of October, when Italy’s interior minister, Matteo Piantedosi, announced that the following week he would begin sending migrants arriving in Italy to centres in Albania.
This move has been strongly criticised by opponents and humanitarian organisations.
Speaking to RAI News, Piantedosi said that the facilities built by his country in the Albanian coastal towns of Schengjin and Gjader, located respectively some 65 and 76 kilometres north of the capital Tirana, were already operational.
Schengjin is the site for the disembarkation, identification and initial reception of migrants rescued in international waters by Italian vessels, while the Gjader centre, a former North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) military base, will house asylum seekers.
The latter has the capacity to hold some 900 people, and also has a centre for holding migrants subject to deportation, with 144 places, as well as a penitentiary with 20 places, for those accused of crimes.
Its surrounding walls are five metres high, with perimeter surveillance cameras to prevent escape from the site. There are also some 500 police officers ready to act, 150 of whom have been there since August to protect the facilities. This is according to a report published in the newspaper Il Giornale.
The inauguration of the two centres was scheduled for May this year, according to the protocol signed between Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her Albanian counterpart Edi Rama in the summer of 2023, which was sealed on 7 November of that year and ratified by law 14/2024 last February. However, various problems delayed the work, and last June Meloni visited both sites to supervise the progress of the construction, with the aim of implementing actions to speed up the work.
Following parliamentary approval in February 2024, Senator Magni said that this agreement ‘constitutes a very serious violation of human rights’.
For his part, Pierfrancesco Majorino compared these detention centres to those established by the United States since 2002 at the naval base located in the illegally occupied territory of Guantánamo in Cuba:
It is ‘a kind of Italian Guantánamo, outside any international standard, outside the European Union (EU)’.
(Translated by Cristina Popa – Email: gcpopa83@gmail.com) – Photos: Pixabay
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