'Not squandering millions' Meloni tells Sea Watch

(ANSA) - ROME, OCT 14 - Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has responded to criticism from German NGO Sea Watch accusing the government of "spending hundreds of millions of euros of taxpayers' money to deport and imprison" migrants in Albania after the announcement that two centres Italy has set up in Albanian territory will open this week.
    "What a scandal! "A government which - with a clear mandate received from citizens - is working to defend Italian borders and stop human trafficking, through concrete actions and international agreements", Meloni wrote on social media.
    On Saturday, Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said the first migrants will arrive this week at the two centres Italy has opened in Albania.
    The centres, the result of an agreement between Meloni and Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, were initially supposed to have opened in May 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 expressed interest in emulating it.
    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. (ANSA).