According to an article published by the Italian daily La Repubblica, the migrant centers in Albania, established under the agreement between Italy and Albania, are operating far below initial expectations.
Reported data show that the number of migrants hosted has been minimal during the first year of operation, in stark contrast with official projections. The project, which foresaw a capacity of several thousand people per month and a total budget of €653 million over five years, is facing implementation problems and very high costs per accommodated person.
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On August 22, only nine people remained at the migrant center in Albania. Ten days earlier, there were seventeen. Throughout the summer, the average number never exceeded twenty, and in total, just over one hundred migrants have been housed there within a year. Meanwhile, according to the initial plan, 3,000 people were expected to be accommodated each month — a huge discrepancy that has led the project to be described as an expensive failure.
The center, inaugurated on October 14, 2024, has turned into a “cathedral in the desert,” a large structure that remains almost always empty. Out of 880 planned places, only 400 are operational, while the planned detention facility has never opened. Meanwhile, contingents of police and prison officers continue to patrol an area with no residents.
Despite repeated statements by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni that “the centers in Albania will operate,” the situation is expected to remain unchanged at least until next summer, when the new EU Pact on Asylum and Migration might enter into force — a development that still lacks the consensus of member states.
According to the Italy–Albania protocol documents and government planning, €653 million have been allocated over five years for the operation of the two centers (in Gjader and Shengjin). This includes the construction of the facilities, the contract with the operator Medihospes, expenses for police missions, and high transport costs by sea and air between Italy and Albania. This amounts to more than €130 million per year.
Considering that by July 25 only 111 migrants had passed through these centers, the cost per person reaches an astronomical figure of over one million euros. This is the price, according to Altraeconomia’s report, that Italian taxpayers have paid for a project which the EU Court of Justice has ruled cannot be used to detain asylum seekers from safe countries.
Furthermore, according to the same report, Medihospes — the company that won the management contract for €133 million for the first two years — has not yet signed the agreement with the Rome prefecture, even though 17 months have passed since the tender ended, while the maximum deadline for finalizing the contract was 60 days.
Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi had hoped that the new European Pact on Asylum and Migration would enable full operation of the Gjader center, but that prospect seems increasingly distant, as EU member states continue to disagree on the pact’s operational guidelines.
— La Repubblica
