Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi
told reporters on Thursday that the government does not intend
to empty the migrant centres it has set up in Albania of staff
after daily newspaper La Repubblica reported that the company
that runs the facilities has started to fire workers.
The implementation of a protocol between Rome and Tirana for the
fast-track processing of asylum seekers at the facilities has so
far been stymied by Italy's courts.
The two centres of Shengjin and Gjader are currently empty of
migrants after Italian judges failed to validate the detention
of the first three groups of migrants taken there in October,
November and January.
The detention of the migrants who were brought to Albania under
the innovative but controversial government scheme to deter
departures has been quashed pending a European Court of Justice
ruling, expected later this month.
La Repubblica reported that, in the dismissal letters, the fired
workers were told the reason was "a series of contradictory
judicial pronouncements that do not conform to the guidelines of
the Italian (supreme) Court of Cassation".
Premier Giorgia Meloni's government is adamant that the Albanian
centres will become operation and is looking at ways to overcome
the legal hurdles.
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