Before even setting foot in Italy, the 16 Egyptians and Bangladeshis deported to Albania must have already understood that it is a complicated country. In the end, despite so much detour, they ended up going to Italy anyway. After the departure of the first four on the same day of their arrival, two for being minors and another two for being in vulnerable conditions, the last 12 remaining in the Gjadër internment camp, set sail this Saturday at 8:58 a.m. Shengjin port on an Italian coast guard ship. They have arrived in a blue bus, after traveling the 23 kilometers that separate the detention center from the coast. They were dressed in the black uniforms provided to them in the internment camp and each one carried a black bag. In a few minutes they got on the boat, which set sail immediately. His departure occurs after this Friday’s decision by a Rome court that ordered his immediate transfer to Italy.
In the end, they have only been in Albania for three days. When they set foot on Italian soil this afternoon in the port of Bari, it is estimated that they will spend about five or six hours, these 16 strangers will certify the failure of the premiere of the deportation plan of the far-right government of Giorgia Meloni in Albania. Its main objective and propaganda effect to its electorate was precisely to demonstrate that migrants rescued at sea would no longer reach Italy. This was the basis of the Albania model that the European Commission and several countries are looking at closely, with the idea of replicating it.
Meloni had put his plan into action despite the foreseeable difficulties that he was going to encounterafter the Government has twisted the laws to the limit to make it possible. The system has failed where it was expected to fail. Mainly, in three basic points. One, a ruling by the European Court of Justice on October 4 that drastically cut the list of safe countries of origin to whose citizens the rapid protocol could be applied, and left out almost all those who arrive in Italy by sea. It is the ruling to which the Rome court that ordered the transfer of the migrants has referred. Second point, the small number of migrants to whom the protocol can ultimately be applied, given numerous other legal limitations – healthy adult men in non-vulnerable conditions rescued only by Italian ships in international waters -, which has been reflected in the absurd cost of mobilizing a warship to carry only 16 people. And three, a prior selection of deportees carried out in hasty and precarious conditions, which could lead to errors. Everything has come true.
In summary, two minors and two adults in serious vulnerable conditions, due to having suffered torture, were already detected in Albania. Furthermore, some of the deportees claim that at the time of being rescued they already saw the island of Lampedusa, according to the parliamentary delegation that spoke with them. That is, they could have been helped in Italian waters. And finally, they are all from Bangladesh and Egypt, two countries that according to the European ruling should be considered unsafe.
However, even though the outlook was bleak, Meloni continued forward. Perhaps due to the rush to release the model, which was five months late, in view of the European Council that has addressed immigration. Perhaps because he tested it, mainly with the judiciary, whom he now accuses of acting ideologically and can blame the plan for not having worked. A new clash is underway between the Meloni Executive and the judges.
In any case, the Italian Government wanted to convey the idea that this was only the first assault, not that the setback marks the end of the model. A council of ministers was convened on Monday where, as Meloni announced, they will devise new legal patches “to overcome the obstacles.” The Italian press reports today that it will approve a decree on safe countries. The effectiveness of these maneuvers is not very well known, because the main obstacle has been the European ruling, which is unalterable. In any case, the Minister of the Interior, Matteo Piantedosi, has already repeated several times that the Italian plan is only a preview of what will come into force in 2026 throughout the EU, when the new Immigration Pact is applied. It is understood that from then on they hope to have more legal coverage.
