Italian navy

An Italian navy ship has set sail for Albania carrying a second small group of migrants, with Rome looking to salvage a controversial plan to process asylum seekers abroad after a first attempt hit legal hurdles.

Images from the early 1990s of thousands of Albanians crammed onto all kinds of ships—most famously the “Vlora” with 10,000 passengers—on the journey of hope from Durrës to Italy are not so distant. It was August 8, 1991, when scenes of a drama were unfolding at the port of Bari that were destined to be repeated.

A Rome court has rejected orders to detain a group of migrants in a reception facility in Albania and said they had a right to be brought to Italy, dealing a blow to Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's plan to divert asylum-seekers abroad.

An Italian navy ship has docked at the Albanian port of Shengjin to bring the first group of 16 migrants intercepted in international waters to be processed there.

The naval ship Libra left the port of Lampedusa on Monday with 16 men - 10 from Bangladesh and six from Egypt - who were rescued at sea after departing from Libya, a ministry spokesperson said.

A group of migrants, intercepted in Italian waters, disembark at Shengjin port in Albania on Oct. 16, 2024.

A navy boat carrying migrants intercepted in Italian waters docked at Shengjin port in Albania Wednesday, AFP reported, the first arrivals under a new deal between Rome and Tirana.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Tuesday hailed a controversial deal to send migrants for processing in Albania as "courageous," saying Rome was setting a "good example" for other countries.

Italy is the first country in the European Union to create processing centers outside the bloc for migrants arriving at its borders.

Two migrant accommodation centers in Albania are set to receive asylum seekers from Italy.

The journey of the first migrants started by sea to the cities of Shëngjin and Gjadër in Albania where the two structures have been built.

An Italian navy ship carrying to the two closed Italian centers in northern Albania illegal immigrants sailed from Lampedusa a short time ago, the Interior Ministry in Rome said.

This wasn't the first mass escape from Albania. A few months before, on March 6, 1991, several thousand more Albanians reached Italy after seizing cargo ships in the ports.

A year earlier, on July 1990, some 5,000 others took refuge in foreign embassies in the capital, Tirana. Thousands more crossed the land border to Greece.

Italian police said on Wednesday they had arrested an Italian navy captain and a Russian diplomat on suspicion of spying after the two were caught swapping a document for money at a clandestine meeting.