by Alice Pistolesi
On 14 October 2024, an Italian Navy ship transported dozens of refugees from Libya rescued at sea to newly built reception centres in Albania. These are the first applicants for protection brought to the Balkan country. SOS Humanity is among the NGOs that have criticised the fact that their asylum applications will be processed under an accelerated procedure outside the European Union, jeopardising their human rights. We talked about this with Mirka Schäfer, political expert at SOS Humanity.
According to Sos Humanity, the Italy-Albania agreement violates international maritime law. Can you further explain this statement? What rules does it violate?
The agreement leads to delays in the disembarkation of people rescued at sea and violates the obligation to disembark people rescued from a dangerous situation at sea in the nearest safe place. The Albanian port of Shengjin is 1000 kilometres away from the rescue area, which means several days more transit time than disembarking in Lampedusa or Sicily. Albania is therefore not the nearest safe haven for people rescued in the central Mediterranean. According to international maritime law and resolutions, the designated safe place should be reached with a minimum deviation from the ship’s route’; states “must ensure that disembarkation takes place as soon as possible”; and “governments and relevant Rescue Coordination Centres (RCCs) should make every effort to minimise the time during which rescued persons remain on board the assisting vessel”. (2004 Amendments to the International Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue (1979), Imo Resolution MSC.155 (78), Imo Resolution MSC.167 (78). In addition, the right to asylum is also restricted due to the sub-optimal situation of reception centres in Albania.
Dal momento che è un accordo lesivo del diritto internazionale e dei diritti dei rifugiati, secondo voi perché è stato possibile farlo?
L’accordo evidenzia lo stato disastroso dell’erosione del quadro dei diritti umani in Italia e nell’Ue. SOS Humanity critica l’accordo come un’altra strategia per allontanare la responsabilità dei diritti umani dei rifugiati, minando il sistema europeo e globale di protezione internazionale. È già chiaro che i diritti fondamentali di coloro che cercano protezione vengono violati. Le persone colpite e i loro difensori dei diritti umani non rimarranno in silenzio e contesteranno queste violazioni nei tribunali.
Italian public opinion has not paid much attention to this issue. Why do you think so? What can citizenship do in this case?
The lack of transparent information on the construction and cost of the Albanian centres is certainly a problem that has hindered civil society’s general awareness of this agreement. Access for civil society actors and organisations is currently unclear. EU agencies have limited access to the centres and even journalists report that access is difficult. This makes independent human rights monitoring difficult. However, there have been several reactions from civil society and various organisations such as Amnesty, Human Rights Watch, the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe and others have strongly criticised the agreement.
As civil society actors and human rights defenders, we must demand that the agreement be stopped, as it endangers the fundamental and human rights of refugees and undermines the right to asylum. Furthermore, according to the Italian research institute Openpolis, the implementation costs over the next five years amount to 653 million euros of Italian taxpayers’ money. Citizens could demand that this budget of hundreds of millions be used instead to create safe and legal routes for refugees to the EU and establish a European search and rescue programme.
To learn more, read our Kosovo conflict factsheet
Cover image: Syracuse, Sicily, Italy, 11.10.23. SOS Humanity 1 NGO organisation migrant rescue ship in the port of Syracuse (©Aleksandra Tokarz/Shutterstock.com)
