According to a research released Thursday by the University of Bari and the charity ActionAid Italy, the cost of the migrant detention center Italy established in Albania is seven times higher than that of a comparable facility at home.
A damning report has highlighted critical financial and legal obstacles around Italy’s offshore migrant center in Albania, asserting that the project has cost Italian taxpayers up to seven times its worth per bed compared to centers in the host country.
The research jointly put out by ActionAid Italy and the University of Bari studied the financial aspects of Italy’s bilateral deal signed with Albania in late 2023 concerning migration. It claimed that Italy spent around 74 euros million on building and running the Shëngjin-based facility with a per-bed cost of about 153,000 euros as opposed to only 21,000 euros per bed in domestic reception facilities like in Sicily. “The Albania operation stands out as the most expensive, inhumane, and ineffective measure in the history of Italian migration policy,” their report said.
Despite the extraordinary investment, the Albanian facility was rarely put into use since its activation. It only worked for five days with only twenty persons passing through, yet it had operational payments of more than 570,000 euros in that short time. To add on to the troubles, there were further judicial obstacles with more than one Italian court ruling that asylum seekers detained in Albania had to be returned to Italy for their processing by virtue of obligations under EU asylum law limiting externalization of asylum processing to non-EU states without full safeguards on rights.
Reportedly in reaction to adverse court rulings, Italian authorities started considering using that same center as a repatriation hub to process deportations as opposed to asylum claims. This option has also been criticized concerning cost-effectiveness and human rights issues.
The conclusions made by the report have served as fuel for opposition figures, more so for Democratic Party leader Elly Schlein, as she lambasted Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s migration policy as financially irresponsible and morally corrosive. Schlein has publicly demanded an account for that scheme which she branded as “wasteful and ineffective.”
What is at stake, in particular, are the financial questions surrounding the deal. Earlier forecasts placed the total operational cost concerning these Albanian centers at upwards of 653 euros million over five years. While daily expenses for a detainee are stacked at almost 297 euros-hold on, as compared to the Italian 33-this is a model that usually finds no justification in economic or humanitarian terms, maintain experts.
While the European Commission watches the Albanian deal closely, several EU states are trying out external processing options on migration. However, rising legal challenges, operational inefficiencies and international criticism might prevent Italy’s offshore framework from evolving into an enduring model of migration governance in the years to come.
“Giorgia Meloni must apologise to Italians, because the figures regarding the costs of her illegal Albania operation are an insult even to the millions of people who are currently struggling to get by,” said PD leader Elly Schlein.
