Premer Giorgia Meloni on Friday
posted a video of Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama saying it was
only right to help Italy with its migrant issues by allowing
Rome to set up processing centres in the eastern Adriatic
country.
Meloni also said Rama had given an effective response to Italian
centre-left moves to have the Albanian Socialist leader ejected
from the European Socialist and Democrats (PSE) caucus because
on the move, seen as a rightwing one.
"The Italian left is trying to expel the Prime Minister of
Albania, Edi Rama, from the European Socialist Party over the
agreement with Italy on migrants. Listen to his effective
response," Meloni wrote on social media, posting the video of an
interview in which Rama said: "Perhaps it is not left-wing to be
of help to Italy in this way, welcoming a few thousand
immigrants, but it is also not right-wing in Albania, because
the right in Albania says the same things.
"So it is not left-wing and it is not right-wing, maybe it is
simply right".
Under the terms of the deal, Italy would set up two or more
migrant pre-removal centres in Albania, under Italian
jurisdiction, able to process up to 36,000 migrants and refugees
a year.
Leftwing critics have likened the centres to Guantanamo Bay and
have compared the move to Australia's now abandoned policy of
sending asylum seekers to Papua New Guinea or Britain trying to
send migrants to Rwanda, a move so far stymied by the British
courts.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
