Italy: Police and social workers leave Albania after staffing empty migrant centres

Rome: Dozens of Italian police officers and social workers deployed by Italy’s far-right government in migrant centres in Albania have returned home, after it emerged that the facilities, praised as a model to reduce refugee arrivals, have been empty for weeks.

Just over a month after the much-publicised opening of the multimillion-euro detention centres for asylum seekers in Albania, which were supposed to receive up to 3,000 men a month, more than 50 police officers were moved back to Italy two weeks ago while dozens of social workers have left over the weekend, with their presence in Albania considered “needless”.

Since their opening on 11 October, only 24 asylum seekers have been sent to the centres in Albania, with the goal of repatriating them to their countries of origin. Five spent fewer than 12 hours in a detention centre, while the rest stayed for just over 48 hours.

All were transferred to Italy after Italian judges deemed it unlawful to detain them in Albania before repatriation to countries, such as Bangladesh and Egypt, considered “safe” by Rome. In doing so the judges were upholding a 4 October ruling by the EU’s court of justice (ECJ) that a country outside the bloc could not be declared safe unless its entire territory was deemed safe.

As a result, the centres, presented by the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, as a new model for how to establish processing and detention centres for asylum seekers outside the EU, have been empty for more than a month.

At a time when the government is struggling to balance the budget – cutting funds for education, health and social security – opposition parties have described the deal, that will cost about €1bn (£830m) over five years, as a “financial disaster”.

“Mission accomplished!” said Riccardo Magi, the president of the leftwing opposition party Più Europa (More Europe). “The government has succeeded in the effort to repatriate. Migrants? No, Italian operators sent to Albania, who will be returning home by the weekend. The government first wasted a huge sum of public funds, then with the centres emptied, brought back some police personnel to Italy, and now even social workers are returning home. This is an epochal failure.”

The scheme has led to a row between the government and judges, who have been accused by far-right parties of obstructing the project.

Nicola Gratteri, the chief prosecutor of Naples and one of the most authoritative magistrates in Italy, said in a TV interview this week: “We must stop attacking magistrates just because we don’t like a decision.

“I don’t want to give a political judgment, but I say that at this moment in Albania there are 250 law enforcement officers who are hardly doing anything. It’s a waste to keep 250 police officers on a mission in Albania, so I think they should be brought back to Italy where we are struggling with staffing shortages for thousands of policemen.”

The government has said the centres in Albania “will remain open and operational” and that the transfers to Italy have been made according to staffing needs. However, the credibility of Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, is at stake after she made immigration a central campaigning issue. In the past she has criticised predecessors for spending public money on managing the migration crisis. The transport by sea on an Italian military ship of just eight men who arrived in Albania over a weekend in mid November cost €250,000 (£205,000) – more than €31,000 per asylum seeker onboard.

Elisabetta Piccolotti, an MP for the Green and Left Alliance party, said: “The government has failed knowing it would fail. They have spent a mountain of money and played with people’s rights. This will remain in history as a shameful page for our country.”