Author: Lucie Sýkorová, HlidaciPes.org
The new migration pact will enter into force in a year. It will also offer the possibility of detaining migrants in detention centres, which has been criticised by human rights organisations. The attention of EU member states is focused on Italy, which has now started using detention centres in Albania as repatriation centres.
The migration pact is a set of ten standards that will enter into force on 12 June 2026, with some of them coming into force in July of the same year. EU countries agreed on the final version in April last year after nine years of negotiations.
The new rules are intended to lead primarily to more effective checks and faster returns of failed asylum seekers. The average success rate of return policies in the EU is currently only twenty percent.
In May, the Commission adopted a decision to provide an additional three billion euros to support member states in preparing for the changes and accepting refugees from Ukraine. Member States will be able to use this additional financial support until the end of 2027. However, they must adapt their existing national programmes by the end of this year to accommodate the additional funding.
This money comes on top of almost €11 billion already earmarked for migration and border management for the period 2025-2027, and €450 million for Member States hosting beneficiaries of temporary protection from Ukraine from 2022 onwards.
Temporary protection status for refugees from Ukraine was introduced on 4 March 2022 and extended until 4 March 2026. The Commission is now examining other options, including further extensions, conversion to residence for work or study purposes, and support for those returning to Ukraine.
Italy awaits court ruling
Under the new migration rules, asylum seekers will be able to be detained for the entire duration of the procedure, for up to six months (12 weeks in the border procedure plus 12 weeks in the return procedure). Human rights organizations warn that this measure could be problematic for vulnerable people such as children or victims of trauma.
Detention should not be used as an automatic or default measure applied to everyone, but rather as an exceptional measure before which existing alternatives should be considered, notes People in Need.
Many countries are focusing their attention on the possibility of introducing detention or repatriation centers, which could potentially be located in a third country. Italy is a pioneer in this direction, having opened two return centers in Albania last August.
At the time, European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen described the Italian-Albanian project as “unconventional thinking.”
“We should continue to explore possible avenues regarding the idea of developing return centres outside the EU, especially in light of the new legislative proposal on returns. With the entry into operation of the Italian-Albanian Protocol, we will also be able to draw practical lessons from this experience,” she wrote in October in her response to a call by 17 EU countries, including the Czech Republic, asking the Commission to speed up changes in return policy.
In mid-October last year, 16 migrants from Italy – ten Bangladeshis and six Egyptians – were transferred to Albanian centres, but all were returned to Italy within a week following a ruling by a court in Rome.
The court justified this decision by saying that asylum seekers cannot be sent back to their countries of origin because the court does not consider these countries to be sufficiently safe. Furthermore, four of the 16 migrants were rejected by the centre staff as vulnerable after undergoing medical and other checks.
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled on October 4 last year that a country is not safe if only part of its territory proves to be dangerous. The Italian government has since adopted measures establishing a list of 19 safe countries to overcome a legal obstacle preventing the Rome-Tirana agreement from being implemented, saying that courts must rule on the basis of a decree rather than an ECJ ruling.
“We are waiting for the ECJ ruling, which I am convinced will go towards confirming the detention and defining a list of safe countries,” Deputy Interior Minister Nicola Molteni told Italian media this week.
The centres in Albania, which Italy has allocated almost a billion euros for over five years and wanted to process up to 36,000 asylum applications a year, have been empty since the autumn.
Self-harm and suicide attempts
But in April this year, Italy tried to find a use for the centres. It sent 41 failed asylum seekers to Albania to await deportation. They were placed in a center in Gjader, a former military base surrounded by a high fence and monitored by cameras. Under Italian law, failed asylum seekers can be detained for up to 18 months while they await deportation.
Italian MEP Cecilia Strada and MEP Rachele Scarpa of the opposition Democratic Party visited Gjader at the end of April and found that only 25 of the original 41 refugees were still in the center.
One of them was to return to Italy immediately, six were sent back after the courts did not confirm their detention, five were found unfit to live in a confined facility due to health problems or a risk of self-harm, and four were repatriated to their countries of origin, the politicians later learned.
According to records, there were 35 incidents recorded in the first 13 days of the centre’s operation, mostly self-harm and suicide attempts. According to Strada, the authorities even stopped distributing sheets after some detainees used them to attempt hanging themselves.
MEP Strada also criticised the lack of transparency of the whole process. According to some sources, the total number of people deported to Albania was already more than a hundred and the capacity of the Gjader centre was said to be full.
Migrants down by almost a quarter
According to the Italian Interior Ministry, 11,438 migrants had landed on Italian shores by mid-April this year – down from 16,090 recorded in the same period last year.
The Italian government, however, still hopes to return to its original plan for detention centres and is awaiting a ruling from the Court of Justice of the European Union and the EU’s final list of so-called safe third countries.
Similar plans to Italy have been floated by other European countries in recent years. The UK and Denmark explored plans for Rwanda last year, but they ultimately fell through. The German government has been negotiating with officials in Uzbekistan, Afghanistan’s neighbor, to help take in deported refugees in exchange for favorable rules for migrant workers.
Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof has suggested Uganda as a destination country for African migrants who have been denied asylum in Europe.
