Albania migrant centres to open early Oct says Mantovano

(ANSA) - ROME, SEP 27 - Italy's new and long-delayed migrant processing centres in Albania will open in the first 10 days of October, Cabinet Secretary Alfredo Mantovano said Friday.
    The opening of the centres, he told a press conference, "has encountered difficulties due to the nature of the terrain, problems that emerged during the works and unfavorable weather events that occurred both in August and a few days ago.
    "At the latest by the first ten days of October the facilities will be delivered for testing and after a few days will be fully operational".
    The three structures were supposed to get up and running by the start of August, Premier Giorgia Meloni said on a visit to the third hotspot in the port city of Shengjin with Prime Minister Edi Rama on June 5.
    The centres were initially supposed to have opened on May 20 but there have been construction and procedural delays.
    The scheme has been criticised by rights groups as externalising migration processing and creating a new Guantanamo but several other European countries have said they would like to emulate it.
    British Prime Minister Keir Starmer voiced special interest in the scheme, and other moves that have brought migration to Italy down this year, on a visit to Rome earlier this month.
    Meloni has stressed that, under the bilateral protocol setting up the centres, women, children and the 'fragile' would not be taken to Albania after being rescued by Italian vessels.
    This has also been slammed by critics as needlessly and cruelly splitting families, a claim Italy denies. (ANSA).