MPG’s Carmine Conte warns of differential treatment of asylum applications in light of Italy – Albania agreement

MPG’s Senior Legal Policy Analyst, Dr. Carmine Conte, was interviewed by Euronews on the recent agreement between Italy and Albania to transfer people seeking asylum rescued at sea to Albanian territory to wait for their asylum applications to be processed. Carmine pointed out that “there is a risk of differential treatment between asylum applications examined in Italy and those examined in Albania,  as this country is not obliged to comply with European asylum legislation”.

The Italy – Albania agreement will likely face many legal obstacles, you can read more on it in this Euronews article, and it will not be effective to ensure safe access to Europe for people seeking asylum, reduce loss of life at sea and reduce human smuggling and trafficking. Europe’s approach to people migrating should be balanced and humane. It should include safe and regular pathways to Europe, such as resettlement schemes, complementary pathways like humanitarian visas and work permit schemes, and labour migration schemes grounded in decent work principles.