ROME (AP) — More than a dozen humanitarian organizations that provide health care to migrants on Friday denounced Italy’s migration deal with Albania as a violation of the code of medical ethics and urged health workers not to cooperate with it work.
The agreement, which is at the heart of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s crackdown on human trafficking, calls for some male migrants rescued at sea to have their asylum cases processed while held in two reception centers in Albania, a non-EU country.
Italy, which has long demanded Europe take on a greater share of the continent’s migration problem, has held up the deal with Albania as a model for the continent and a powerful deterrent to potential refugees arriving on smuggling boats from North Africa. on the way to a better life. .
But the five-year deal, which will cost Italy 670 million euros ($730 million), has encountered a series of obstacles and legal challenges that have prevented even a single migrant from being processed in Albania.
First, construction delays have prevented the centers from opening for months. After the first two groups of 20 men were transferred to Albania this month, Italian courts issued rulings that led to their transfer to Italy.
The case is now before the Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxembourg, which has been asked to rule on whether the men come from countries deemed safe for return. All twenty are from Bangladesh and Egypt.
On Friday, the non-governmental organizations released a detailed analysis of the procedures for screening migrants first on Italian naval vessels and then in Albanian centers to determine whether they are “vulnerable.” Only men who are not considered ‘vulnerable’ may be sent to Albania.
The aid groups said there were no proper facilities or tools to make such a decision. And in any case, virtually everyone who made the dangerous crossing across the Mediterranean suffered the kind of physical, psychological or sexual abuse that should disqualify them from Albanian detention, they said.
The migrants should be considered to be at risk of post-traumatic stress disorder or other serious physical and mental health consequences, they said.
The groups criticized the international organizations apparently collaborating with the project, identifying the International Organization for Migration and the Italian Knights of Malta Rescue Corps as “complicit” in human rights abuses.
“The Italy-Albania Protocol violates the code of medical ethics and human rights and endangers the physical and psychological health of migrants,” the statement said.
There was no immediate response to emails sent to the IOM or the Knights’ press offices seeking comment.
The Italian government has said the migrants’ rights would be fully guaranteed in Albanian centers and the deal has been hailed by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as an example of ‘out-of-box thinking’ to tackle the migration problem. But human rights groups say it sets a dangerous precedent and violates Italy’s obligations under international law.
The UN refugee agency has agreed to monitor the first three months of the deal and one of its teams is conducting an “independent mission” aboard the transfer ship to monitor the screening process.
The legal challenges have arisen despite the small number of people affected so far. Although the centers were built to house as many as 3,000 migrants per month, only 20 were transferred through the first two separate ship passages, only to be sent to Italy after the intervention of the courts in Rome.
The statement was signed by Doctors Without Borders, Emergency, Sea-Watch, SOS Mediterranee and other aid groups.
