Albania migrant deal stop-gap measure says Minniti

(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 10 - A memorandum of understanding that Rome and Tirana signed this week for Italy to set up centres to manage migrants in Albania is a stop-gap measure. centre-left opposition Democratic Party (PD) bigwig and former interior minister who curbed north African migration Marco Minniti said Friday.
    Under the agreement Albania will receive up to 36,000 migrants and refugees a year for processing in centres under Italian jurisdiction.
    "The only precedent is (the deal) between the United Kingdom and Rwanda of 2022, and to this date no migrant has been transferred," Minniti told Corriere della Sera.
    "To that I add: their prime concern was Albanian immigration.
    "If they weren't serious things you might say: Great Britain wanted to take the Albanians to Rwanda, and we the Africans to Albania, and it doesn't seem a proof of far-sightedness to me.
    "I had appreciated the idea of a Pact with Africa that included the Mettei Plan that would become a European plan, the fight against human traffickers and paths for legal migration.
    "Two months later, in a scenario which is destabilised by the Hamas attack, by the eastern Mediterranean in flames and the changed relations with the moderate Arab countries, elements that will all influence migratory flows, it seems to me that tactics are prevailing over strategy.
    "We'll have to see how the the accord with Albania will translate concretely. Before there was talk of two centres, then one.
    "I wouldn't like to be the one to give an authentic interpretation of Rama think".
    Albanian Premier Edi Rama has said it is "simply right" to help Italy in this way amid concerns human rights of migrants will not be respected and amid a threat from Italy's opposition centre-left Democratic Party to eject the Albanian Socialist leader from the European Socialists and Democrats caucus at the European Parliament because of the deal.
    He also said the accord would not create a new Guantanamo.
    Minniti continued: "It seems to me that weighing over the deal is the gigantic unknown of the consideration of extra-territoriality: either they are quickly repatriated or they return to Italy.
    "There returns, therefore, the issue of repatriations with departure countries and therefore the issue of Africa. Let's look at the figures: over 145,000 migrants have arrived and in the best hypothesis the number of those repatriated will reach 4,000.
    "With these numbers, what sense does (the deal) make?" Minniti said it was clear "that this is a stop-gap measure that is in the logic of an emergency.
    "But immigration is a structural reality of the planet. If it was true before (the Hamas attack on) October 7, this principle becomes even more important. Vital, in fact.
    "The EU needs to make its voice heard. Instead, this time too is has chosen not to have a role".
    Minniti was Minister of the Interior from 12 December 2016 to 1 June 2018.
    In that time, he gained plaudits for making deals with Libya to stem migrant flows to Italy.
    Such a deal is now impossible given Libyan lawlessness, while most migration departures have shifted to Tunisia, with which Italy signed a deal earlier this year that has been stymied over concerns whether its is a safe country.
    Due to his policies on immigration and security, Minniti has been often criticized by left-wing intellectuals and writers, like Gomorra author Roberto Saviano, and labeled as a strongman.
    While he was in office, some political commentators described him as the most powerful man in Italy.[ (ANSA).