The New Frontier of Deportation: Against the Albanian Laboratory

On Monday, the military ship Libra set sail to transport the first 16 migrants to Albania, where they will be held in a facility awaiting deportation. The migrants were selected on board the ship where they were rescued. The men were separated from the women and children, and those from “safe countries” were identified for expedited processing. All of this was done away from prying eyes, as no press which could document the process was allowed on board the military ship that transported them to Albania. Within hours, this initial selection proved to be so arbitrary that four migrants (two Bangladeshi minors and two “vulnerable” Egyptians) were sent back to Italy. After one day, all the procedures had been rejected by the committee working in Albania, but the competent court in Rome did not authorize the detention – as was to be expected – because, according to a European judgment, the countries of origin of the migrants could not be considered “safe”. The result is that all the migrants will return to Italy, appeal and be judged by the ordinary procedure. We can already expect that this is just a glimpse of how the centers in Albania will actually operate: a black box of arbitrary decisions, the cost of which will be borne by the migrants.

The agreement with Albania is the latest in a series of deals made by the Italian government to externalize the borders of a Europe that continues to exercise violent control over migrants, but fails to stop their pursuit of a better life in defiance of war, exploitation and oppression. In fact, at the same time that the government triumphantly announced the transfer of 16 migrants, more than a thousand men and women arrived in Lampedusa, defying racist state laws and borders. This agreement completes a criminalization plan that Meloni and her allies have systematically pursued through various means, starting with the racist treatment of asylum seekers and migrants that prefectures, law enforcement agencies and local administrations practice daily to isolate them, leave them without documents, prevent them from working or accessing health care, and even deny them the possibility of family reunification. This project is in full continuity with the security law approved by the Chamber of Deputies last month and the racist policies of the Ministry of the Interior, which has dismantled the reception system, drastically increased the percentage of permit denials, and left the few migrants who manage to obtain international protection homeless, despite its own laws. But the deportation project to Albania also marks a “new frontier”, both literally and figuratively, in the attack on migrants and the right to asylum: by spending hundreds of millions of euros and allocating another 670 million for the next five years, Meloni’s government is at the forefront of a ferocious attempt to keep migrants far from European borders and out of sight, in centers where they can be subjected to summary and accelerated procedures, without any guarantee of legal assistance, without any chance to assert their rights or to organize and fight back.

The military ship that deported the migrants – the same one that in 2013 allowed dozens of Syrian children to drown and that “accidentally” did not arrive in time to prevent the recent Cutro tragedy – now stands as the most emblematic image of the new European racism in times of war. It is the ultimate expression of an ever-growing, daily violence that States within and outside the European Union inflict on migrant men and women. Not by chance, the Italy-Albania agreement has been hailed as a “guiding model” by none other than President von der Leyen herself, who can boast another success for her vision of Europe, following the Migration and Asylum Pact, which, before the summer, dealt the final blow to the right of asylum in Europe. Even as experts, organizations, and associations listed an endless array of national and international regulations with which the Italy-Albania deportation plan would be incompatible, the President of the Commission candidly stated that this is merely an “experiment” from which many practical insights can be drawn. Thus, Albania becomes a testing ground for all the racists of Europe. The ongoing European Council is discussing the Italian case as a model, and Meloni is more decided then ever to find a practical solution to bypass the courts. We do not know how many migrants will actually end up in the centers or how many will have to be sent back to Italy due to the blatant arbitrariness of the measure. What is certain is that the bar for violence against migrants has been raised even higher, and European leaders believe they have much to learn from this.

Meanwhile, the new French government has announced an immigration law that will limit family reunification, restrict migrants’ access to welfare, and lengthen their detention times. Even the exercise of ius soli for citizenship could be reduced. On the Eastern front, the Polish government has announced its intention to temporarily suspend the right to asylum, while just a few days ago, Iranian border guards repelled and killed 300 Afghan migrants attempting to cross the border. Migrant men and women are under attack everywhere by European governments that continue to strike deals with governments outside Europe to block and contain departures from their countries, as has happened and continues to happen in Tunisia, Libya, and Turkey.

What unites these governments is their desire to exercise authoritarian control over migrants that not only targets borders but also attacks the ability to organize and build movements against institutional racism in Italy, both within and outside Europe. These movements, now more than ever, must contend with a war scenario that has accelerated and intensified increasingly violent labour control policies, not just against migrant men and women. Because they do not want to deport to Albania only asylum seekers who have chosen freedom, but also the possibility for everyone to say no to a present of oppression and exploitation that they want to impose on us as inevitable.