The planned opening in Albania of reception centers for migrants rescued at sea by the Italian authorities is worrying the Council of Europe, which stressed on Monday that it fears the rights of refugees will be violated.

Rome and Tirana last week signed a memorandum of understanding which provides that Italy will open two migrant reception centers in Albania, which is not a member state of the European Union. The centers will be able to accommodate up to 3,000 migrants from spring 2024 and a total of around 39,000 a year, according to projections by the Italian government under Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

But for the Council of Europe’s human rights commissioner, Dunia Mijatovic, this “abroad asylum regime is characterized by many legal ambiguities”.

In particular, it raises the risk of “different treatment of those whose asylum applications will be examined in Albania and those whose applications will be examined in Italy”, Ms. Mijatovic noted in a statement released in Strasbourg. It increases “the risk for refugees, asylum seekers and migrants to suffer violations of their human rights.”

Italy, faced with a large increase in migration flows since January (145,000 arrivals, compared to 88,000 in the corresponding period of 2022), has appealed to its European partners for more solidarity, without any particular result so far.

The opposition in the far-right coalition government led by Ms Meloni is rebelling against the signed text.

The agreement concluded “conforms to the international legal rules governing the rights of asylum seekers”, assured the Minister of the Interior of Albania Taulad Bala.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) called for “international refugee law” to be respected, while the European Commission said it had requested “detailed information” on the deal from the Italian government.