Italian ship takes migrants to Albania in second test of deal to process claims outside the EU

MILAN (AP) – An Italian military ship carrying migrants was en route Wednesday to Albania to process asylum claims under a five-year deal to handle asylum claims outside the European Union’s already blocked legal route.

A spokesman for Italy’s interior ministry confirmed that the navy ship Libra was headed for the Balkan nation, but declined to say how many migrants were on board or when it would arrive.

Italian daily La Repubblica reported that of 1,200 foreign arrivals on the southern Italian island of Lampedusa over the past two days, only eight adult male unaccompanied minors met Albania’s vetting criteria, including that they came from countries considered “safe” to return.

The ship, which can carry 200 people without crew, is expected at the Albanian port of Shengjin early Friday.

This is only the second transfer since the two centers started functioning last month. The first group of migrants was due to be sent back to Italy, after a court in Rome ruled that their countries of origin – Bangladesh and Egypt – were not safe enough to be sent back.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgio Meloni envisioned the two centers holding around 3,000 migrants a month as a way to help Italy manage migrants on its southern coast, but human rights activists have criticized the deal as setting a dangerous precedent.

Meloni, who heads Italy’s first far-right-led government since the end of World War II, criticized the decision of the Rome court, saying that considering countries like Bangladesh and Egypt as unsafe means that almost all migrants will be barred from the Albanian system, making it ineffective.