On 6 November 2023, the Italian and the Albanian governments signed a 5-year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the construction of detention centres in Albania, to be used to arbitrarily detain people rescued or intercepted at sea by Italian state ships. According to the tender, worth €34 million, the site is planned to include three structures and to accommodate a total of around 3,000 people at any given time. The detention centres will reportedly be operative by Summer 2024.
Italy’s MoU with Albania is—alike several other MoUs signed over the last decade, e.g. with Libya (see S.S. and Ors v Italy) and with Tunisia—is part of the normalised practice of externalisation of borders.
de:border has signed, and would like to uplift and affirm the positions articulated in, the statement codrafted and coordinated by Albanian communities in Italy, Greece and the UK, in collaboration with collectives from Albania and Kosovo—MiQ (Greece), Zanë Kolektiv (Italy), and Shota Magazine (Albania, Kosovo).
The text is available in Albanian, Greek, Italian, French, Spanish and Turkish. It can be signed here.
A Collective Statement
This text is a collective cry. We gather in common opposition to borders that separate and kill. We gather as the embodiment of this resistance, defying and rejecting the oppressive forces that seek to exert power and control over us, standing together in solidarity against their attempts to dominate and suppress.
Asylum Deal between Italy and Albania
We have followed the recent news with fear and anger. Starting from November, Albania and Italy have started discussions and agreed on the creation of two centers of detention for refugees in Albania: a Reception Center for Asylum Seekers (CARA) and a Permanence Center for Repatriation (CPR), two open air prisons, run by Italian executives and built to incarcerate up to 3000 people at a time, who will be forcibly moved from Italy to Albania, while their asylum claims are processed. Although in December the Constitutional Court of Albania has frozen this agreement, discussions have continued, showing that a total opposition to this deal is urgent; while European politics which cause the disappearance, incarceration and murder of migrants continue to develop and become more and more brutal.
Against a Plan of Externalisation and Dehumanizing Violence
This plan is: nothing but a dreadful known history of externalization of migration politics and management of migration through the creation of unlivable conditions; nothing but the continuation of politics that render bodies disposable in the Balkan route, which has been marked in the last years by a dehumanizing violence like no other; nothing but what has already been happening in Lampedusa, in Lesvos, in Kos, but also in Athens, Rome and London among others for the last decade. The old story to which the bodies and histories of Albanian migrants since the 1990s can attest to.
Against Neocolonial Tactics
We refuse to stand idle while the Italian neofascist government lures with EU Money the corrupt Albanian government of Edi Rama in the materialization of its neocolonial policies; policies that understand Albania as well as the Balkans as an archaic, exotic and savage space, that needs to allow Frontex in their territory and build refugee prisons in their cities in order to be part of the West. We refuse to agree with what can only amount to the further (hyper)exploitation of the people of Albania through the violence against people who enter Europe and have histories, hopes, fears and experiences that are very familiar to us and can only place us against any policy that seeks to control, imprison and kill.
Against the Instrumentalisation of our Lives
And, unlike declarations by Albanian PM, Edi Rama, that this deal is Albania’s duty to Italy, we say without a doubt that we owe nothing to the Italian government, neither as Albanians nor as immigrants. Our migration stories will only become a stone that is thrown against every ethnopatriarchal force of oppression, and not a stone to build bigger and bigger walls. Against all risks, our parents, our friends, our neighbors decided to cross the borders and some of us crossed them with them. We have all been subjected to the brutality of the border patrol. Some did not make it. Survivors alongside their children, confronted by xenophobia in their adopted states, endure ongoing assimilation and systemic oppression. In a bid for survival within the intensification of the grip of capitalism, they are forced to accept any job, exchanging hard manual labor for poor wages, their bodies were and remain relentlessly exploited. Years expended and funds squandered navigating exhausting bureaucracies aimed at securing the essentials for themselves and their families – a dignified life and basic human rights. Their sacrifices, an enduring testament to their relentless pursuit of a better life. Their acts of resistance to the violences of their lives- ever present, always there, bigger or smaller- the tradition which we inherit and build on.
We Assert, We Condemn, We Demand
We assert unequivocally: that refugee lives matter, and we stand in solidarity with them. We strongly condemn the clandestine agreement between Edi Rama and Giorgia Meloni, forged without the consent of the affected populations. These neocolonialist measures, forged for political gain, echo the historical oppression we have endured. The right to shape one’s destiny should not be dictated by Rama, Meloni, or the EU. Mindful of the dehumanizing nature of detention centers, institutions that flagrantly violate the human rights of asylum seekers, we, as Albanian collectives and migrants, oppose the memorandum inked by the Albanian and the Italian PMs. Our stance against such establishments, not only in Albania but globally, is unwavering. We support the resistance against the opening of these sorts of camps, urging for effective protection and the preservation of fundamental human rights for asylum seekers right now. We think of all the people that are already imprisoned in similar camps all over Europe and not only and demand their immediate liberation. We demand that all people are free to move based on their own will, as well as to decide where they want to live and for how long.
Collective Action Now!
This collective statement, co-authored by Albanian immigrants residing in Italy, Greece and the UK, in collaboration with collectives from Albania and Kosovo invites other collectives to critically engage with our joint declaration, sign (https://forms.gle/DoWDJo11EuzNWZrE7) and further share it.
Together, we make a stand against the detention, silencing, and degradation of lives, forging a collective resistance against borders that reverberates and demands to be heard.
MiQ (Greece), Zanë Kolektiv (Italy), Shota Magazine (Albania, Kosovo)