UN rights chief voices concerns over Italy-Albania migrant pact

A deal allowing Italy to build reception camps in Albania for thousands of migrants arriving by sea raises concerns about arbitrary detention and living conditions, the UN human rights chief said on Thursday.

"Transfers to Albania to conduct asylum and return procedures raise important human rights issues, particularly freedom from arbitrary detention; adequate asylum application procedures, including screening and identification; and living conditions," the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said in an address to the Italian Senate.

"Italy's legal obligations under human rights and refugee law must not be undermined," he said, adding that similar arrangements had caused "great suffering and harm" in other countries, without naming them.

The Italian right-wing government of Giorgia Meloni, which takes a hard line against illegal...