Italian police officers outside a fenced entrance at Gjader port in Albania, deployed as security for the arrival of migrants transferred by sea. Photo: BIRN/Nensi Bogdani.
The human rights organisation Amnesty International on Thursday called on Italy and Albania to end a deal designed to send migrants and asylum seekers to offshore detention in Albania.
In a new research report, Amnesty International said that the 2023 deal between Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, “is jeopardising people’s safety, liberty and human rights”.
Under the scheme, adult males from countries designated as “safe“ who are intercepted by the Italian coastguard while attempting to cross the Mediterranean would be transferred by ship to detention centres in Albania, which are run under Italian jurisdiction. There, their asylum claims would be fast-tracked and completed within 28 days – far shorter than the months-long process typical in Italy – before likely repatriation.
“Offshore detention is ultimately aimed at deterrence and trying to shift and evade both the responsibilities of responding to people migrating and the obligation to provide asylum to those who need it. Italy’s deal with Albania shows yet again the unavoidable human rights costs of this approach,” said Eve Geddie, director of Amnesty International’s European Institutions Office, said in a press release.
“Just before the deal entered into force, Amnesty International sounded the alarm on the harmful impact it would inevitably have on the rights of people in distress at sea, and of people transferred to Albania. Clearly, these concerns have now materializsed,” Geddie’s statement added.
Italian courts ordered the first three groups that were sent to Albania be returned to Italy, citing an EU Court of Justice (CJEU) ruling from October 4, 2024, that a “safe country” designation must apply to the entire national territory.
In March 2025, Meloni abandoned the original plan pending a resolution of legal challenges. The Italian government then approved legislation instead allowing migrants and refugees issued with deportation orders from Italian authorities to be detained in Gjader, Albania.
The shift means that the Gjader camp has been converted into a repatriation centre for holding those who reached Italy, were rejected for asylum and then issued deportation orders.
According to Amnesty International’s research, 500 men have been “forcibly transferred to the Albanian detention centre in Gjader over the past 15 months.”
The report noted that “between 11 April and 16 May 2025, 42 critical incidents were recorded in the Gjader centre, including at least two attempted hangings, a protest where three people were injured from shattered glass, and various self-harm incidents.
“The Italian government has obstructed independent monitoring of the Agreement’s implementation, including by restricting parliamentary oversight and bypassing ordinary legislative processes. By limiting access and oversight by independent rights observers, what happens in the Albanian detention centres remains largely shrouded in secrecy,” the report said.
“Whilst people detained in Albania fall under Italian jurisdiction, their physical distance from Italy combined with limited access to lawyers, courts and other safeguards, significantly undermines the effectiveness of the right to seek asylum and to access justice,” the report added.
A BIRN investigation found that the cost of constructing the centres in Shengjin and Gjader almost doubled from 39.2 million euros to over 74 million, while the average cost per bed in Albania reached around 72,000 euros. The investigation also found that the entire procedure was conducted through direct negotiation and without competition.