CIVICUS discusses Italy’s policy of outsourcing the management of asylum seekers to Albania with Valeria Carlini, Deputy Director of the Italian Council for Refugees, a civil society organisation (CSO) that defends the rights of refugees and asylum seekers in Italy and Europe.
An Italian court recently blocked Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s new migration policy, which seeks to outsource asylum processing to Albania. The policy states that male migrants from countries deemed to be safe will have to stay in newly established processing centres in Albania or be returned to their home countries. The government claims this will reduce human trafficking and discourage irregular sea crossings. The court has argued that the government is classifying as safe several countries the European Union (EU) considers unsafe, such as Bangladesh and Egypt.