Empty refugee camps

Pipe failure? Rome withdraws staff from Albania

Meloni's asylum pact with Albania is on the brink of collapse.(Bild: AFP/Adnan Beci)

Italy has announced that it is withdrawing most of the staff from its controversial reception centers for migrants in Albania. Will the expensive test balloon now finally backfire?

As several Italian media reported unanimously, a month and a half after the refugee camps were opened, most of the employees of Medihospes, the company responsible for operating and managing the centers, will be leaving Albania this weekend.

Only seven of the company's employees will remain in the camps on Albanian soil. In addition, some Albanian employees, mainly medical staff, as well as an unknown number of Italian police officers will remain there.

According to the ANSA news agency, the Ministry of the Interior in Rome has stated that although the number of staff has been reduced, the camps remain open and operational. The shelters are largely empty.

Meloni's plan fails because of the judiciary
The right-wing government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni recently failed twice with its plan to have asylum applications from Mediterranean migrants decided outside the EU. Courts twice lifted the detention of migrants in the camps after they had previously been stopped by the authorities in the Mediterranean on their way to Europe. They were then transferred to Italy.

Italy is the first country in the European Union to set up camps outside the EU borders in order to process asylum applications there in an accelerated procedure and in accordance with Italian law. The "Albania model" of the right-wing government of Prime Minister Meloni is controversial. However, other European governments are following it closely.