Click to expand Image A migrant reception center at the port of Shenjin, northwestern Albania, June 5, 2024. © 2024 Vlasov Sulaj/AP Photo (Brussels) – The EU and its member states should safeguard the right to territorial asylum in Europe, Human Rights Watch and more than 95 other organizations said in a statement released today. The recent and increasing attempts by several European Union member states to outsource asylum processing and refugee protection to countries outside the EU – such as in the Italy-Albania agreement on migration – contravene their legal responsibilities toward people in need of protection. “All EU member states are obliged to ensure the right to asylum under the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights,” said Iskra Kirova, Europe and Central Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. “Neither the Charter nor the recently adopted EU Pact on Migration and Asylum provides any option for countries to transfer asylum seekers for processing to countries outside of the EU.” The European Commission should firmly reject calls to facilitate shifting asylum processing outside EU territory, the groups said. Wherever such externalization schemes have been attempted, they have been rife with rights violations. They may place asylum seekers in prolonged detention in countries that lack capacity to fairly and fully examine claims and provide protection, leaving them in limbo and denying them crucial legal safeguards, while costing taxpayers inordinate sums. Proposals to externalize asylum processing come against the backdrop of increased efforts by the European Commission to reach controversial deals and provide hefty migration cooperation funds to neighbouring countries to keep migrants outside of Europe, with little or no attention to much needed human rights safeguards, the groups said. “Instead of wasting further time and resources on proposals incompatible with EU law and human rights commitments, the EU should support humane, sustainable, and realistic reception and asylum processing policies in EU territory,” said Kirova. “Such policies would benefit both the people seeking protection and the communities that welcome them.”

Click to expand Image A migrant reception center at the port of Shenjin, northwestern Albania, June 5, 2024. © 2024 Vlasov Sulaj/AP Photo (Brussels) – The EU and its member states should safeguard the right to territorial asylum in Europe, Human Rights Watch and more than 95 other organizations said in a statement released today. The recent and increasing attempts by several European Union member states to outsource asylum processing and refugee protection to countries outside the EU – such as in the Italy-Albania agreement on migration – contravene their legal responsibilities toward people in need of protection. “All EU member states are obliged to ensure the right to asylum under the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights,” said Iskra Kirova, Europe and Central Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. “Neither the Charter nor the recently adopted EU Pact on Migration and Asylum provides any option for countries to transfer asylum seekers for processing to countries outside of the EU.” The European Commission should firmly reject calls to facilitate shifting asylum processing outside EU territory, the groups said. Wherever such externalization schemes have been attempted, they have been rife with rights violations. They may place asylum seekers in prolonged detention in countries that lack capacity to fairly and fully examine claims and provide protection, leaving them in limbo and denying them crucial legal safeguards, while costing taxpayers inordinate sums. Proposals to externalize asylum processing come against the backdrop of increased efforts by the European Commission to reach controversial deals and provide hefty migration cooperation funds to neighbouring countries to keep migrants outside of Europe, with little or no attention to much needed human rights safeguards, the groups said. “Instead of wasting further time and resources on proposals incompatible with EU law and human rights commitments, the EU should support humane, sustainable, and realistic reception and asylum processing policies in EU territory,” said Kirova. “Such policies would benefit both the people seeking protection and the communities that welcome them.”

Click to expand Image A migrant reception center at the port of Shenjin, northwestern Albania, June 5, 2024. © 2024 Vlasov Sulaj/AP Photo Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s June 5 visit to Albania’s Shëngjin port underscores the folly of Italy’s scheme to send migrants and asylum seekers, intercepted in the Mediterranean Sea, to Albania. Amid spiraling costs, delays, and serious concerns about people’s rights, the plan is revealing itself to be an example of how not to manage migration. The scheme, agreed upon last November, commits Italy to setting up a processing center at the Shëngjin port, plus a reception center for asylum seekers with 880 places, as well as a detention center with 144 places. The reception and detention centers will be in Gjadër municipality. Italy says it will send only adult men from countries it designates as “safe” to Albania to undergo an accelerated asylum procedure, followed by quick deportation for those denied protection. But some countries so designated are not “safe” for everyone: there are documented cases of torture and other serious human rights violations in Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, and Cameroon, for example. How Italy will guarantee a fair asylum procedure and judicial review of detention in another state remains a mystery. Meloni now says the centers, originally slated to become operational in May, will be ready by August. Construction costs have increased by more than 25 million euros, while the overall budget for the scheme’s operation over the next five years, according to the government, is €670 million (others say it will cost up to €850 million).  Italy’s government recently opened a bid for private contractors that shows how they plan to implement the deal. It wants a private ship with room for 300 people (200 migrants and 100 staff) to receive people directly from Italian state vessels at sea, south of the Italian island Lampedusa. They will then be transferred to Albania. The operating budget for three months, starting in mid-September, is 13.5 million euros. It remains unclear how, where, and by whom assessments will be made to determine who among those rescued or intercepted should be sent to Albania. Far from illustrating  “a model to follow,” the visit showcased once more that Meloni’s government doesn’t have a sensible or humane approach to migration. The Italy-Albania deal is costly, puts peoples’ rights at risk, and will likely do little to deter people from taking boats across the Mediterranean. It’s a bad idea that keeps getting worse.

Publication date: 1 November 2025 Source: Physiology & Behavior, Volume 301 Author(s): Xiyi Hu, Jiguang Wang, Hui Wang, Fukuan Li, Zhennan Wang, Yan Yang, Shenjin Lv, Mingfa Sun