Under a five-year agreement between Tirana and Rome, Albania will process migrants intercepted at sea by Italian authorities in reception centres.
Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama has ruled out processing migrants from Germany in reception centres in his country, despite Berlin’s potential interest in the idea.
Speaking to Reuters, Rama said that Germany “has to find another partner” if it is interested in the scheme.
“If Germany finds another partner in the region, it would be nice to see if that works in the same way,” Rama said ahead of the Western Balkans Conference in Berlin on Monday.
Under an agreement with Italy, Albania has agreed to host migrants intercepted at sea by Italian authorities near its port in the Adriatic seaside town of Shengjin. The facilities, which began working last Friday and can accommodate up to 3,000 people, are staffed by Italian personnel who will process individual asylum claims.
Rama has insisted that the deal was a one-off agreement exclusive to Italy, citing “unconditional love” for the neighbouring country divided by sea by less than 72 km.
Germany’s Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said the government was considering the idea and would “approach the public shortly with the results” at a meeting of interior ministers in Luxembourg last week.
Faeser added that in such a scheme, “you need to find a suitable partner state,” although she declined to give any more information on how seriously Germany was considering implementing the idea.
Although Chancellor Olaf Scholz has expressed hesitation about the idea, several German parties — including the main opposition party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) — have said they would support Berlin’s own version of the agreement, with leader Frederich Merz referring to the agreement between Italy and Albania as a “model”.
Rama himself has been more cautious about whether Albania could be seen as a model for migration, saying on Sunday that “models have to be tested.”
The Albanian leader added that the six Western Balkan states, including Bosnia and Serbia, would be ideal candidates for externally processing asylum applications. These states are surrounded by EU member states but are not bound by the bloc’s asylum law.
Rama also criticised EU countries for not having a common refugee policy, saying that fears about migration were being stoked in European nation-states to gain more votes.
Last month, Faeser imposed temporary controls on Germany’s border in a move seen by many as a response to the increasing popularity of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, who take a hard-line stance on migration.
Faeser, who admitted that Germany would have to carefully asses whether the agreement between Italy and Albania would be legally viable, previously called the pact an “interesting model” in an interview with Stern in May.
Germany is not the only country curious about the agreement between Italy and Albania, with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer saying the UK was “interested” in the idea.
