Reportage
Meloni’s Albania plan is not only illegal – it’s wasting up to €1 billion
Italy is required to pay for the offshore migration facilities and the cost of lodging Italian agents in Shengjin, even though no migrants are ever likely to arrive there.
In Shengjin, Albania, the migrant hotspot is still empty but, at least, a couple of holiday resorts have been filled up, housing the Italian police forces involved in implementing the Rome-Tirana protocol for the detention of asylum seekers across the Adriatic. Between the Comfort Hotel and the Rafaelo Executive, 4- and 5-star hotels, there are places available for 295 agents.
The facilities belong to the Rafaelo Resort and have a private beach, spa, swimming pool and restaurant. For food, the agents also have the exclusive option to dine at the Comfort Family. After construction works are completed, there will be even more lodgings available for border agents at Rafaelo Lake. In total, the government’s investment in housing the border agents is €9 million, for an “all-inclusive daily per-person expense of €80.”
That’s not a small amount for a country with a much lower cost of living than Italy. The agreement signed has a duration of 12 months, and it is unclear whether it was the result of a public bidding process. All the details are set out in documents from the Department of Public Security of the Interior Ministry, seen by the LaPresse news agency, which broke the news on Saturday.
These figures are added to the astronomical costs of the Albania project: between €700 million and €1 billion over five years, according to different estimates.
This is a project on which Prime Minister Meloni has staked everything. According to the documents uncovered, the money has to be paid regardless of whether there are any migrants at the centers, while sources in the Interior Ministry are claiming that the numbers are only ceiling values and the payments will be made based on actual use of the rooms. However, no migrants are likely to come through the Shengjin hotspot or the Gjader detention centers as of now. At the very least, the government doesn’t seem to have found any effective way out of the corner it painted itself into on the issue of safe countries of origin. The list of such countries – challenged at the EU Court of Justice and by the courts in Rome, Bologna and Catania – is a prerequisite for the international protection process to take place with the migrants behind bars.
“In addition to the violations of human rights as part of an operation that the courts have already branded as illegitimate, there is also an enormous waste of money,” PD secretary Elly Schlein denounced.
“It’s a scandal. They’re willing to keep wasting Italians' money just so they don’t lose face,” said Filiberto Zaratti, leader of the AVS group in the Chamber of Deputies Constitutional Affairs Committee.
“This is not her skit with a calculator in Bruno Vespa's TV studio: Meloni got all her calculations wrong, including on the detention centers for migrants from across the Adriatic,” said MP and +Europa secretary Riccardo Magi.
Even Italia Viva leader Matteo Renzi – who has set himself apart from the rest of the opposition with the idea that the problem with the Albanian centers doesn’t have to do with fundamental rights but is only economic in nature – took the opportunity to attack the government: “Policemen and carabinieri are needed at Italian resorts, in the suburbs and on the streets. Not in Albanian resorts at the cost of millions of euros.”
No one from the majority commented on the news; however, the corrections officers union, UILPA, had a lot to say about it. The union’s secretary, Gennarino De Fazio, denounced the difference in the treatment of the workers he represents: “Resorts for police, containers for corrections officers.” The latter have to sleep in the prefabricated structures built along with the detention center (which has not had any inmates yet). Last week there was a public back-and-forth between De Fazio and the staff present in Gjader, who, in a letter to the Ministry of Justice, distanced themselves from the union’s criticism of the reception conditions at the overseas facility.
However, amid rising costs and unchanged legal difficulties, the government seems intent on staying the course. Leaks from several sources suggest that the navy vessel Libra is ready to return to action south of Lampedusa. There is no official confirmation, but a window of good weather is expected starting on Sunday after days of strong winds and high waves. This could be an opportunity to put the relocation of asylum seekers to Albania to the test once again – perhaps with even larger numbers. However, the government’s hope that the much-discussed Safe Countries Decree Law will settle the issue is likely to remain a vain one. Both primary and secondary norms are still subject to EU law.
Originally published at https://ilmanifesto.it/progetto-albania-a-shengjin-si-riempiono-solo-i-resort on 2024-11-02