Albania’s Mixed Sentiments Towards Italy’s New Migrant Detention Centers

Albanians Perplexed About Italy’s New Migrant Detention Centers For the past few months, Italy under Giorgia Meloni has been constructing migrant detention camps across the Adriatic in Albania. Operated by Italian authorities, these centers are intended to accommodate 36,000 people annually, rescued at sea, while their asylum requests are processed. This project is supported by the Albanian Prime Minister, but it is not unanimously welcomed on the ground.

From our correspondent in the region

Albanians hold mixed views on the establishment of these detention camps. Overall, local residents are dissatisfied and particularly worried about their region being transformed into a “hotspot” for migration issues.

This sentiment is evident in the modest agricultural village of Gjadër, where one of the two planned detention centers is currently under construction, and even more so in Shëngjin, the port city where thousands of people rescued at sea by Italian ships will disembark. The seaside town of Shëngjin is a key economic hub in the northern part of the country, and local entrepreneurs fear that the arrival of refugees in their area will impact tourist traffic. They cite the examples of Lampedusa in Italy or Lesbos in Greece to illustrate their concerns.