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Albanian lawmakers on Thursday ratified a deal to hold, on the country’s territory, up to 36,000 migrants caught by Italian authorities in the Mediterranean each year.
The vote passed by 77 votes to zero in the 140-seat chamber, with opposition members sitting out the ballot.
The centers will be under Italian legal jurisdiction, will be built at Italy’s expense, and are expected to open this spring, Italian PM Giorgia Meloni said last year.
“Albania is standing together with Italy by choosing to act like an EU member state and agreeing to share a burden that Europe should face united as a whole family in the face of a daring challenge that transcends traditional left and right divides,” Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said in a statement on X, formerly Twitter.
The prime ministers of both Italy and Albania previously told a joint press conference in November that the centers would house migrants rescued at sea by Italian boats, but not those who made it to shore.
The Italy-Albania agreement is the first of its kind struck between an EU member country and a non-EU state. It is similar to a plan laid out by the United Kingdom to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, which was halted after a court found it unlawful.
Meloni tweeted: “Thanks to the Prime Minister @ediramaal, the institutions and the Albanian people for their friendship and collaboration.”
