A first group of migrants was heading
Friday to a centre in Albania that has been repurposed to a stay
and repatriation centre (CPR) after its original purpose, as a
processing and repatriation centre for migrants picked up at
sea, was stymied by court rulings. The CPR at Gjader had been
hailed as part of an innovative but controversial offshore
processing scheme that had drawn praise from European Commission
President Ursula von der Leyen and several expressions of
interest from other EU countries. The Navy ship Libra left
Brindisi with 40 migrants on board destined for Gjader. They are
citizens of various nationalities who in recent days arrived at
a CPR in Brindisi, at Restinco, and for whom the Italian
government has ordered their transfer to the facility in
Albania. This decision came after the approval of the decree of
March 28 that allows the transfer not only of asylum seekers
intercepted at sea, but also of irregular immigrants to whom the
police commissioner has delivered an expulsion decree and a
judge has validated their stay in a CPR. The government is still
hoping to revive its original Albania processing scheme for
migrants intercepted at sea, serving as a deterrent against
departures.
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