Italy is investing in three new
Italian-run migrant centres in Albania in order to contain the
cost of processing migrants, Premier Giorgia Meloni said on a
visit to a hotspot in the port city of Shengjin with Prime
Minister Edi Rama on Wednesday.
"We are not spending additional resources but we are making an
investment," she said about the centres, which rights groups
have criticised as creating a new Guantanamo but which other
countries have said they may well copy.
The bilateral protocol, Meloni said, "envisages spending 670
million euro for five years, 134 million per year" which, she
added, "corresponds to 7.5 per cent of the expenses related to
the reception of migrants on the national territory: these
resources are not to be considered an additional cost.
"Migrants brought here to Albania would have had to be brought
to Italy, where they cost (more) money.
"The most useful element of this project is that it can be an
extraordinary tool to deter those who want to reach Europe
irregularly, and to combat traffickers. And this also means cost
containment".
The opposition has said the scheme is too expensive and will not
make a big dent in migrant numbers.
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