Migrants arrive in the harbour of Italian island of Lampedusa, on September 18, 2023. (Photo by Zakaria ABDELKAFI / AFP)
Rome: Italy's scheme to process in Albania some of the migrants it rescues in the Mediterranean went live Monday, with the transfer of the first arrivals.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's hard-right government struck a deal last year to set up two centres in Albania where the migrants may claim asylum, although Rome says those hailing from so-called "safe" countries will be swiftly repatriated.
Here are the key points of the scheme, which critics say falls foul of European law -- but which other EU countries grappling with mass migration are watching closely.
Italy has long been on the front line of arrivals into the European Union and repeated efforts to create mechanisms aimed at redistributing asylum seekers across the bloc have failed.
Meloni, the leader of the post-fascist Brothers of Italy party, who was elected in 2022 on a pledge to stop boat arrivals, signed a deal last November with her Albanian counterpart Edi Rama to process some migrants there instead.
The five-year deal is set up to automatically renew.
Meloni hopes intercepting people at sea and sending them to Albania, which is not part of the EU, will act as a deterrent to reduce the number of landings in Italy, which neared 158,000 last year.
