From the Editor's Desk

Why EU Offshore Migrant Centers Can’t Work—for Now - Foreign Policy (No paywall)

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government presented the scheme, which entails intercepting male migrants at sea and transporting them directly to Albanian facilities, as a potential blueprint for the EU to process migrants outside of its borders. In October 2024, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen praised the Italy-Albania deal, saying that EU leaders had a lot to learn from it and encouraging them to consider offshore “return hubs” as valid options for managing asylum applications.

But later that month, after Italy transported a group of migrants from Bangladesh and Egypt to Albania, an Italian court ruled that all of them must be sent to Italy. The judges cited an earlier EU Court of Justice ruling, which found that a country of origin can only be designated “safe” if the entire country is safe for all minority groups. Meloni’s government has appealed the ruling and recently vowed to follow through on its plans. To date, Italy has not successfully processed a single asylum claim at the offshore centers.

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