Italy's foreign minister backs migration deal with Albania

By Burak Bir

LONDON (AA) - Italy’s foreign minister on Tuesday defended the country's migration deal with Albania, saying it is not comparable with the UK's Rwanda plan.

Speaking in parliament, Antonio Tajani said the government will present a bill in parliament to ratify the agreement it has reached with Tirana to set up migrant centers in Albania.

Tajani said two centers will be set up in Albania under the agreement and no more than 3,000 migrants will be held at them at the same time, the state-run ANSA news agency reported.

"Today's debate (on the agreement) and the vote at the end of it demonstrate that if there were any need, our government has never shied away from dialogue and parliamentary scrutiny, especially on issues of such importance," he noted.

He said only those migrants who are rescued at sea by Italian authorities will be taken to the centers in Albania, meaning the deal does not include those saved by NGO-run ships or people who land on Italian soil.

"It will not be possible to tow the barges of the smugglers, nor will it be possible to direct boats run by non-governmental organizations to Albania...The migrants will have exactly the same treatment as foreseen under Italian and European regulations," he said.

Tajani also underlined that there is no "outsourcing of the processing of asylum applications" to a third country.

"This protocol is not comparable with the agreement between the UK and Rwanda," he added.

The UK Supreme Court on Nov. 15 ruled that the government's plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda is unlawful.

The plan, signed in April 2022 by then-UK Home Secretary Priti Patel and Rwandan Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta, proposed sending asylum seekers trying to enter the UK to Rwanda for resettlement.

The European Court of Human Rights stopped the first deportation flight to Rwanda at the last minute in June last year.