The Italian government is pulling back the majority of its staff from Albania’s migrant centers after less than two months of operation.
Medihospes, the company managing the centers, will retain only seven Italian employees alongside Albanian staff and a small number of Italian police officers. Despite the reduction, the government insists the centers will remain “open and operational.”
The decision comes amid legal challenges. Italy’s highest court, the Cassazione, is set to rule on December 4 whether courts must strictly follow a government list of “safe countries” for repatriation. Earlier efforts to declare countries like Egypt and Bangladesh entirely safe were blocked by migration courts.
The Albanian centers, designed to process migrants outside Italy, have faced significant setbacks. Attempts to process migrants in October and November failed, with courts ordering their return to Italy. Opposition figures, including MP Riccardo Magi, criticized the project as a costly failure, calling it “a waste of public funds.”
Medihospes, which received €133 million to manage the centers, is now scaling back its operations. Meanwhile, Italy’s government is seeking to transfer migration-related rulings to appeal courts to streamline the process, a move critics argue will worsen judicial delays.
Since the centers’ opening, over 6,000 migrants have landed in Italy, with only a handful ever sent to Albania. The project has faced mounting political and legal hurdles, leaving its future uncertain.
