Italian government denies plan to empty Albanian migrant centres

Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi told reporters that the government does not intend to empty the migrant centres it has set up in Albania of staff after daily newspaper La Repubblica reported that the company that runs the facilities has started to fire workers, CE Report quotes ANSA.

The implementation of a protocol between Rome and Tirana for the fast-track processing of asylum seekers at the facilities has so far been stymied by Italy's courts.

The two centres of Shengjin and Gjader are currently empty of migrants after Italian judges failed to validate the detention of the first three groups of migrants taken there in October, November and January.

The detention of the migrants who were brought to Albania under the innovative but controversial government scheme to deter departures has been quashed pending a European Court of Justice ruling, expected later this month.

La Repubblica reported that, in the dismissal letters, the fired workers were told the reason was "a series of contradictory judicial pronouncements that do not conform to the guidelines of the Italian (supreme) Court of Cassation".

Premier Giorgia Meloni's government is adamant that the Albanian centres will become operation and is looking at ways to overcome the legal hurdles.