The debut of the “Albanian model” of migration could not have been worse: as soon as the Italian warship “Libra” sailed to Albania with 16 irregular migrants to be taken to the specially prepared “camps”, it was revealed that among them were three minors from Bangladesh and two disabled people from Egypt – five people who, according to the relevant agreement signed between Rome and Tirana, should not be present
What followed? Italian authorities were forced to return these five irregular migrants to Italy on a coast guard boat. A clear failure, that is, since the beginning of the Prime Minister’s pact Georgia Meloni with his Albanian counterpart, Edi Rama. “An Italian bubble in Albania where immigrants become invisible”, as the Spanish El Pais writes. “A real prison from which they can only leave to go to their country or to Italy”.
This is how “Fortress Europe” seems to work, as long as the civilized Old Continent refuses to see the true causes that make thousands of desperate people become victims of slave traders, in the hope of living the “European dream”.
Immigration will be the main “menu” of the European summit, which begins tonight in Brussels, where the last taboos in European asylum and migration policy are expected to fall: reception camps outside the EU, more and faster deportations, new agreements with authoritarian governments or dictatorially governed countries of origin.
Suddenly, anything seems possible. Europe’s leading politicians – with the recommendation of the President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen – tend to adopt ideas and demands that were previously only in vogue among far-right populists and opponents of the EU.
And the question is: what dramatically happened this year for the EU to get so tough in the face of the tragedy of illegal immigration?
In addition to the “external dimension”, Germany and France are also pushing for the de facto abolition of the Schengen Treaty, for the EU’s “internal borders”.
At the EU summit, Chancellor Olaf Solz will insist on stricter implementation of the Dublin Regulation. Objective: The countries of arrival responsible for “Dublin” should carry out more asylum procedures in the future and also accept more and more asylum seekers from Germany.
This also concerns Greece and Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is reacting correctly to Soltz’s policy.
In just 10 months, the EU went from signing the already restrictive Migration Pact to proposing the creation of “deportation camps”, outside EU borders, for all types of waste and rubbish in Europe.
The 27 appear to be sliding precipitously into a model that ignores human rights. A “model”. which just a few years ago was considered illegal by the EU itself, which now promotes it.
The letter sent by von der Leyen to the 27 de facto buries the Pact on Migration and Asylum adopted in December 2023 by the European Council and the European Parliament.
Without even having worked, for example, until the controversial and sad article about the payment of 20 thousand euros per migrant if a member country refused to welcome them.
This agreement was even presented as the lesser evil in exchange for consent on such a sensitive issue.
Unfortunately, the political landscape in the EU has undergone significant changes since then.
In all elections held since then on European soil, the populist extreme right has been the winner. And many parties across the Democratic spectrum have begun to take a hard, far-right line on immigration. What is considered normal today, in the eyes of many citizens.
From Denmark’s social democratic government, which asked Brussels for “innovative solutions” to combat irregular immigration, to the far-right Italian government’s “Albanian model”.
Remember the fears with which the EU and the European press faced the election of the metafascist Giorgia Meloni as Prime Minister of Italy two years ago? No problem today. The “Italian experience” is slowly setting the agenda for the rest of Europe as well. The EU dances to the tune of Meloni…