Italian navy ship drops off 49 migrants in Albania despite previous court rejections
Italian navy ship drops off 49 migrants in Albania despite previous court rejections
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Giorgia Meloni’s Italian government is looking to relocate migrants to Albania in a contentious plan. An Italian navy ship has dropped off 49 migrants in Albania after intercepting them in international waters, in the third attempt to carry out a contentious plan to relocate migrants to be processed under a deal between the two countries.
![[The 49 migrants were intercepted in international waters]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/28/11/2025-01-28T102252Z_1625589822_RC2YICAKPZO6_RTRMADP_3_MIGRATION-ITALY-ALBANIA.jpg)
The attempt to process the migrants at special centres in Albania follows two failed attempts in October and November, when Italian judges refused to approve the detention of two small groups in the centres. Cassiopea, the navy ship which picked up the migrants, reached the Albanian pot of Shengjin early on Tuesday, where they will be identified at a facility before being moved to a detention centre 20km (12 miles) away.
![[A migrant is seen aboard the Italian navy ship]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/28/11/2025-01-28T085331Z_1282075235_RC2UICA2AKSJ_RTRMADP_3_MIGRATION-ITALY-ALBANIA.jpg)
The nationality of this group of migrants in the port of Shengjin, 66 kilometres northwest of Albania’s capital of Tirana, was not specified by the Italian Interior Ministry. Italian media has reported that they were from Bangladesh, Egypt, Ivory Coast and Gambia.
Two reception centres in Albania have been built by the Italian government of Giorgia Meloni, in the first such deal by a European Nation to divert migrants to a non-EU country as it looks to limit arrivals via sea. Judges in Rome have questioned the legality of the plan, with the first two batches of migrants detained in Albania afterwards relocated to Italy.
