Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi has said that his country’s authorities hope to resume the transfer of irregular migrants to reception centers in Albania, expressing confidence that this would lay the foundations for overcoming doubts about the recent intervention legislation on so-called safe countries.
The Italian news agency (AKI) quoted Piantedosi in an interview with La Stampa newspaper on Tuesday: “On this basis, we hope to resume as soon as possible the transfers that are not necessary today because the preventive measures against departures from Libya and Tunisia are working very well.”
The Italian Minister of the Interior added: “I am also sure that the forthcoming rulings of the European Court of Justice will confirm the legality of the agreement signed between the Italian and Albanian governments on the management of the flows.”
This is because “it is now clear at European level that these centers are an important part of the strategy to combat irregular migration managed by human traffickers, one of those innovative solutions often mentioned by the European Council.”
The Italian Minister pointed out that “in 2024 we have reduced the number of illegal arrivals by 60% compared to the previous year and by 38% compared to 2022,” and that “for the second year in a row, the number of repatriations has increased by 16%”.
