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.
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