An IMGlobalWealth.com News Report
Italy is preparing to activate its long-delayed migrant processing centres in Albania after EU interior ministers agreed on a set of reforms that significantly reshape the bloc’s asylum and return framework.
Speaking in Brussels, Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said the Council’s approval of key migration files marked a “turning point” for Rome’s strategy, allowing the facilities in Gjader and Shengjin to finally become operational after months of legal and political obstacles.
“Albanian centres are now positioned to become the first practical example of this model within the Union’s legal framework”
Originally established under a 2023 bilateral agreement between Italy and Albania, the centres were designed to host adult male migrants rescued at sea and originating from so-called “safe countries”. Their purpose was to enable accelerated border procedures, rapid assessment of asylum claims, and, where applicable, swift returns.
“ministers finalised the EU’s first common list of safe countries of origin, a move intended to accelerate asylum procedures for nationals from Bangladesh, Colombia, Egypt, India, Kosovo, Morocco and Tunisia…”
However, the plan stalled after Italian courts repeatedly challenged detention orders and questioned the designation of certain countries as “safe”, prompting legal referrals to the European Court of Justice. As a result, the facilities remained idle well beyond their intended launch date.
That impasse may now be easing. EU ministers have endorsed a revised definition of “safe third country”, broadening the circumstances under which asylum claims can be deemed inadmissible, including cases where applicants merely transited through a country before reaching the EU. This change is expected to facilitate faster rejections and deportations.
Crucially for Italy, the Council also approved a new EU return regulation that explicitly allows member states to establish so-called “return hubs” outside EU territory. Piantedosi said the Albanian centres are now positioned to become the first practical example of this model within the Union’s legal framework.
In parallel, ministers finalised the EU’s first common list of safe countries of origin, a move intended to accelerate asylum procedures for nationals from Bangladesh, Colombia, Egypt, India, Kosovo, Morocco and Tunisia, as well as from existing EU candidate countries.
Italian officials argue that Rome played a central role in pushing these reforms onto the EU agenda, framing the outcome as a strategic success for Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government, which has made migration control a political priority.
Human rights organisations, however, remain critical of the direction of travel, warning that offshore processing and expanded detention risk eroding asylum protections and judicial safeguards.
As the new rules begin to take effect, Italy’s Albanian centres will serve as a test case for the EU’s evolving approach to migration management, and a bellwether for how far member states are willing to go in externalising asylum and return policies.
