失败 意大利放弃 驱逐寻求庇护者

意大利开始从阿尔巴尼亚离岸庇护中心撤出工作人员

https://www.forbes.com/sites/freylindsay/2024/11/26/italy-begins-withdrawing-staff-from-albania-offshore-asylum-centers/

Frey Lindsay 高级撰稿人 2024 年 11 月 26 日

阿尔巴尼亚离岸处理中心的几座建筑物视图阿尔巴尼亚正在建设中的离岸处理中心。

据报道，意大利政府已开始从阿尔巴尼亚的离岸庇护处理中心撤出工作人员，此前意大利法院曾多次试图在那里处理人们的申请，但均被驳回。这些中心背后价值数百万美元的计划受到质疑，意大利将于 12 月举行听证会，以决定该计划背后的根本理由是否有效。

阿尔巴尼亚计划已经酝酿多年。该计划是总理乔治亚·梅洛尼内阁的创意，旨在拦截试图通过海路抵达欧洲的人（其中大多数人抵达意大利海岸），并将他们送往阿尔巴尼亚专门建造的中心处理他们的庇护申请。该计划的目的是阻止人们进入意大利和欧洲，通过让他们实际上不踏上意大利领土，理论上它允许当局绕过欧盟的庇护和人权立法，从而更容易将人们遣返回原籍国。

该计划于 10 月启动，梅洛尼政府表示，该计划每月可以处理数千名寻求庇护者，五年内花费约 7.2 亿美元。该计划立即遇到了障碍。第一批被送往阿尔巴尼亚的寻求庇护者——几十人，主要来自孟加拉国和埃及——在意大利法官宣布他们不能在海外处理后，被迅速送回意大利。

问题是意大利是否被允许决定哪些国家足够安全，可以将人们送回。虽然意大利保留了自己的“安全”国家名单，但欧洲法院的一项裁决阻碍了这一决定，意大利法官目前有权自行决定。

到目前为止，还没有人在阿尔巴尼亚根据该计划接受处理，尽管意大利政府尽最大努力绕过“安全国家”障碍，但法律挑战似乎对该计划的继续存在至关重要。意大利最高法院预计将于 12 月初作出裁决，决定意大利法官是否将继续拥有他们现在的自由裁量权。

与此同时，据报道，阿尔巴尼亚处理中心的工作人员正在撤出，但意大利政府坚持该计划仍在实施。预计少数工作人员将留在中心。如果该计划因法律挑战而永久受阻，尚不清楚这些中心会发生什么——更不用说已经承诺的 7.2 亿美元了。

欧盟许多人认为意大利的计划是一种试点项目，旨在了解离岸处理是否是政府限制非正常入境人数的可能途径。英国也尝试过类似的计划，同样耗资数亿美元，但在 7 月，即将上任的工党政府在处理完一个人之前就放弃了该计划。尽管如此，英国首相已表示对意大利的计划感兴趣，德国目前正在考虑离岸处理计划，据报道，欧盟委员会本身也在考虑。

弗雷·林赛
我写关于移民、发展、欧盟/英国经济以及它们如何相互交织的文章。在 Twitter 上关注我 @FreyLindsayMCP，或者给我发电子邮件：[e-mail]

Italy Begins Withdrawing Staff From Albania Offshore Asylum Centers

https://www.forbes.com/sites/freylindsay/2024/11/26/italy-begins-withdrawing-staff-from-albania-offshore-asylum-centers/

Frey Lindsay Senior Contributor  Nov 26, 2024

Offshore processing centres, under construction in Albania. (Photo by Olsi Shehu/Anadolu via Getty 

The Italian government has reportedly begun withdrawing staff from offshore asylum processing centers in Albania, after several attempts to process people’s applications there were struck down by Italian courts. The multi-million dollar scheme behind the centers is in question, with a hearing in December to decide whether Italy’s underlying justification for the scheme is valid.

The Albania scheme has been a number of years in the making. The brainchild of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s cabinet, it aims to intercept people trying to reach Europe via sea - the majority of whom arrive on Italian shores - and send them to specially-built centers in Albania to have their asylum claims processed. The point of the scheme is to keep people out of Italy and Europe, and by having them not actually set foot on Italian territory, in theory it allows authorities to side-step EU asylum and human rights legislation, making it easier to deport people back to their countries of origin.

The scheme launched in October, with Meloni’s government stating it could process thousands of asylum seekers per month, at a cost of around $720 million over five years. It immediately hit roadblocks. The first groups of asylum seekers sent to Albania - several dozen people mostly from Bangladesh and Egypt - were swiftly sent back to Italy after Italian judges declared they could not be processed offshore.

The issue is whether or not Italy is allowed to decide which countries are safe enough to send people back to. While Italy maintains its own list of ‘safe’ countries, a European Court of Justice ruling stands in the way of that, and Italian judges currently have the discretion to decide for themselves.

So far no person has been processed in Albania under this scheme and the legal challenges appear existential to it continuing at all, despite the Italian government doing its best to get around the ‘safe country’ obstacle. A ruling from Italy’s highest court is expected in early December to decide whether or not Italian judges will continue to hold the discretion they have now.

 

In the meantime, it has been reported that staff are being withdrawn from the processing centers in Albania, though the Italian government insists the scheme remains in operation. A handful of staff are expected to remain in the centers. It is not clear what will happen to the centers - not to mention the $720 million dollars already pledged - if the scheme is permanently blocked by legal challenge.

Italy’s scheme is seen by many in the EU as a sort of pilot project to see if offshore processing is a possible avenue for governments to limit the amount of people arriving irregularly. The United Kingdom attempted a similar scheme, also costing hundreds of millions of dollars, but that was scrapped by the incoming Labor government in July before it had processed a single person. Nonetheless, the U.K.’s Prime Minister has expressed interest in Italy’s scheme and offshore processing schemes are currently being considered by Germany and reportedly by the European Commission itself.

 

Frey Lindsay

I write about migration, development, EU/UK economies and how they all intersect. Follow me on twitter @FreyLindsayMCP, or email me on [e-mail]