Call for European Mobilization Against Migrant Expulsion Centers in Albania

Post author:Network Against Migrant Detention
Post published:19 November 2024
Post category:Senza categoria

If Europe is building new detention camps, anyone who wishes to live in a free Europe has the responsibility to dismantle them.

Administrative detention of migrants is once again becoming the preferred strategy to handle illegalized mobility in Italy. In addition to its commitment to build a Center for Repatriation (CPR) in every single region in Italy, on November 6 last year the Meloni government signed an agreement with the Albanian government to build an Italian hotspot and detention facility for migrants on Albanian soil. This measure attempts to externalize the sovereignty of a European member state over a third country’s territory concerning immigration and border control. Although Rama and Meloni paint a positive picture of this cooperation, peppered with a language of brotherhood, the Italy-Albania agreement constitutes a clear violation of the principle of Albanian sovereignty and is yet another expression of neocolonial logic, evident in the way Italy dictates control over Albania’s territories.Although such a model has been tested elsewhere, such as Australia’s Pacific Solution, it represents an unprecedented deal in border infrastructure in Europe.

This agreement has been welcomed by various EU representatives as well as other member states, well representing a trend across Europe, and beyond, with regards to the control of irregular mobility: dismantling the right to asylum, externalizing, and militarizing borders. From Italy to Albania, from Hungary to the Netherlands, from Germany to Poland, an extreme right-wing wind is blowing, whose primary objective is the criminalisation of racialized people on the move.

On the ground of this agreement, however, a rift has opened up between the executive and judicial powers both at Italian and European levels concerning the definition of “safe countries”, on which the legitimisation of the system of accelerated border and deportation practices is based. The Italian government thus defines countries such as Tunisia, Egypt, or Bangladesh as “safe”, to name just a few, ignoring the evident conditions of oppression that various segments of the population endure in these places. The current clash between institutions shows the political space that has opened up, which we must be able to occupy in order to propose, defend, and shape more democratic mechanisms for managing migration within and towards Europe.

If the Rama-Meloni pact represents a dangerous experiment that goes beyond the political interests of Italy and Albania, then now more than ever, we need a trans-European mobilization—stretching even beyond the EU’s geopolitical borders—to reconnect and strengthen the many solidarity networks built over the years in support of freedom of movement. For this reason, we call on groups from across Europe and neighboring countries—no-border activists, people on the move, BIPOC, grass-roots collectives, associations, NGOs—who have been active for years along the borders and in opposition to forced confinement. Together, let us build a shared space of dissent, starting with the mobilizations against the centers in Albania, where we will take a leading role in the coming weeks.

With the Network Against Migrant Detention (NAMD), which brings together many groups and organizations from both Italy and Albania, we will gather on December 1 and 2 in Tirana and at the camps in Shëngjin and Gjadër to oppose the neo-colonial model of outsourcing border control through the Meloni-Rama pact.

We invite everyone to join us and mobilize together for the abolition of migrant detention and borders, the establishment of safe and accessible entry routes and the issuance of a European document, and freedom of movement for all.

See you in Tirana!

Signatures:

Mai più lager – No ai CPR

Ya Basta Bologna

Tpo

Làbas

Stop Cpr Roma

Melting Pot Europa

Mesdhe

Europe Other

Zanë Kolektiv

Associazione Open Gates