Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has announced a several-week delay in the completion of a second migrant detention center in Gjadër, Albania. Alfredo Mantovano, Italy’s secretary of the council of ministers, attributed the setback to excessive heat and subsequent forced work pauses for the builders. The first migrant center in Shengjin Port was ready in May 2024, with both now tentatively expected to open in 2025.

The construction of the two centers is part of a controversial five-year agreement signed by Meloni and Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama on Nov. 6, 2023. The process of detaining migrants offshore has been dubbed the ‘Italian Model,’ drawing praise and criticism from human rights groups and European Union and Albanian politicians. 

Italian M.E.P. Flavio Tosi told Euro News that the centers are expected to house up to 36,000 migrants annually while they wait to hear from Italian authorities about their eligibility for asylum or repatriation; the individuals not approved will be sent back to their country of origin. Tosi added, “The price to pay to open these facilities is irrelevant compared to the overall cost to manage migration as a whole.” 

Meloni said at a news conference on June 5, 2024, the total cost of the scheme is €670 million ($729 million) over five years  — the high price tag was one concern raised by Italian opposition politicians. Meloni defended the agreement saying it would be an “extraordinary deterrence” for illegal immigration and smuggling of refugees to Italy through the Mediterranean crossing. Reuters reported that Italian officials said the joint effort will also help control overcrowding at processing centers in Italy.

The Associated Press found that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had sent a letter to E.U. leaders in December 2023, supporting “important initiatives” and “out-of-box thinking” on restricting migration including the Italy-Albania agreement. In an interview with A.P., Fabrizio Bucci, Italy’s ambassador to Albania, said that families will not be separated upon arrival and the centers will not hold “people deemed vulnerable,” including women, children and the elderly. 

The externalization of migration policies gained popularity among E.U. Member States in 2015 when there was a crisis in the number of crossings of the Mediterranean. Amnesty International wrote in its 2017 External Migration Policies Report, that sovereign states have a legitimate security interest in controlling migration and cooperating with other sovereign nations in those efforts. One part of the appeal of externalization is the ability to shift the responsibility of “providing international protection to refugees and asylum-seekers” to other governments.

The model of externalization, including the Italy-Albania deal, has been criticized for violating human and jurisdictional rights. Cooperation between the E.U. and other non-E.U. bordering countries in this way, for example, could undermine and prevent the efforts and freedoms of people fleeing their nation for fear of persecution and seeking protection. Although approved by Albania’s Constitutional Court and passed in Parliament by Rama’s Socialist Party majority, Conservative opposition M.P.s voiced doubts about the deal. Al Jazeera reported that those who boycotted the vote called it an “irresponsible and dangerous act for national security.”

In a press release from the International Rescue Committee, an organization that supplies aid, education and healthcare to people living in conflict zones, I.R.C. wrote that the Italy-Albania agreement weakened E.U. solidarity and its asylum system. Imogen Sudbery, the I.R.C. Senior Director of European Advocacy, said in the release, “The E.U. must expand existing and create more safe routes to protection in Europe so people are not forced to risk their lives on dangerous routes in the first place.”