The Constitutional Court of Albania approved on Tuesday a migration agreement with Italy to establish migrant processing centers under Italian jurisdiction in Albania and allow Italy to send migrants rescued by Italian ships at sea to Albania. The centers would jointly accommodate up to 3,000 detained migrants at any given time.

According to Human Rights Watch, more than 85,000 individuals in 2022 reached Italy by sea by the end of October that year. The report wrote that the “continued failure to ensure adequate facilities and swift transfers” led to the periodic overwhelming of the reception center at Lampedusa, Italy in 2022.

Human rights groups such as the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and Amnesty International (AI) have criticized the agreement. IRC described the deal as “costly, cruel and counterproductive” and AI stated that it is “illegal, unworkable [and that] it must be scrapped.”

IRC Italy Country Director Susanna Zanfrini criticized the Italian government’s failure to create “a humane, sustantainble and efficient approach to asylum and migration.” She stated that such actions deter individuals from seeking asylum in Italy and do not create effective solutions.

AI called on Italian lawmakers to reject the deal on January 22. AI migration and asylum researcher Matteo de Bellis said:

Rather than ratifying this harmful agreement, Italian [members of Parliament] should instead support measures to ensure adequate reception in Italy, access to an effective asylum procedure [] and safe, regular access routes.

AI also expressed concerns over the protection of children and pregnant women as the agreement did not explicitly state the way in which an individual’s vulnerability would be assessed.

The practice of refoulement is prohibited under international refugee law and European law. This practice involves sending a person to a country where they are at risk of human rights violations. The principles of non-refoulement are embedded in Article 78(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and Articles 18 and 19 of the Charter of the Fundamental Rights of the European Union. The European Court of Human Rights previously criticised Italy for its violation of the principle in Hirsi Jamaa and Others v. Italy in 2012.