Albanian parliament ratifies migration centers deal with Italy

Albanian parliament ratifies migration centers deal with Italy
Members of the Albanian parliament after the vote on the deal between Italy and Albania that allows Italy to build migrant processing centers on Albanian territory, Tirana, Albania, Feb. 22, 2024. (Reuters)
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Updated 22 February 2024
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Albanian parliament ratifies migration centers deal with Italy

Albanian parliament ratifies migration centers deal with Italy
  • First example of a non-European Union country accepting migrants on behalf of an EU nation
  • Accord has drawn comparisons with Britain’s plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda

TIRANA: Albanian lawmakers on Thursday ratified a migration deal with Italy under which Rome will build processing centers for migrants that it will send on to its Balkan neighbor across the Adriatic Sea.
It is the first example of a non-European Union country accepting migrants on behalf of an EU nation, and is part of an EU-wide campaign to clamp down on irregular immigration that has fueled a rise in the popularity of the far right.
The accord has drawn comparisons with Britain’s plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda in East Africa as a deterrent to further migrant journeys in small boats across the Channel from France organized by human traffickers.
Seventy-seven deputies in the 140-seat parliament voted in favor of the deal, announced in November, under which Italy will open two camps in EU-candidate Albania, one of Europe’s poorest and least developed countries.
“Albania is standing together with Italy by choosing to act like an EU member state,” Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama wrote on social media platform X following parliament’s vote.
“No country can solve such a challenge alone. Only a stronger, braver and more sovereign Europe loyal to itself can.”
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni replied on X, thanking Rama, Albania’s institutions and people “for their friendship and collaboration.”
One of the camps Italy plans to set up on the Albanian coast would screen sea migrants on arrival, and a second nearby would hold them while asylum applications are processed. Migrants would then either be allowed to enter Italy or be repatriated.
An Italian government source said Rome aimed to have the centers in Albania operational by this spring.
The deal has drawn international criticism from human rights advocates, and domestically from those who fear its impact on Albania’s security and on its financially vital tourist industry.
“This (tourist area) will not be the same again once the migrant processing centers are built,” said Arilda Lleshi, an activist who protested in front of parliament during the vote.
“We have reasons to believe that these (migrant centers) will be a security problem for the whole area.”
The agreement was challenged before Albania’s Constitutional Court by the main opposition Democratic Party, which argued that it broke the constitution by ceding sovereignty over Albanian soil to another country.
The Constitutional Court rejected the claims and gave a green light last month. While UN officials have criticized the Italy-Albania deal, the European Commission has said it does not appear to breach EU law as it falls outside its jurisdiction.
Rights experts warn it might be hard for Italian courts to promptly process asylum requests or appeals against detention orders from people hosted in another country, and lengthy procedures could put an unjustified burden on migrants.


Three Kosovo Serbs on trial over ‘secession plot’ attack

Three Kosovo Serbs on trial over ‘secession plot’ attack
Updated 10 sec ago
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Three Kosovo Serbs on trial over ‘secession plot’ attack

Three Kosovo Serbs on trial over ‘secession plot’ attack
The trial comes amid mounting tension between Serbia and its former breakaway province
The group is accused of ambushing Kosovo police in the border village of Banjska in a September 2023 attack

PRISTINA: Three Kosovo Serbs went on trial on Wednesday over an armed incursion a court heard was part of a plot to seize Serb-majority northern Kosovo and unite it with Serbia.
Forty-two others are also being sought over a deadly standoff between Kosovo authorities and Serb gunmen last year, with the court in Pristina yet to decide whether to try them in absentia.
The trial comes amid mounting tension between Serbia and its former breakaway province, which declared independence in 2008.
The group is accused of ambushing Kosovo police in the border village of Banjska in a September 2023 attack that left one police officer and three attackers dead.
Prosecutor Naim Abazi told the court that the three were accused of “preparing and committing terrorist acts.”
“Acting according to a well-organized plan, they tried to secede the northern part of Kosovo — the Serbian-majority municipality — and unite it with Serbia,” Abazi said.
The three accused, who were escorted in handcuffs by heavily-armed police into the courtroom packed with reporters, were arrested during the shootout at the Banjska monastery near the border. Forty two others are still at large and believed to be in Serbia.
According to the 158-page indictment seen by AFP, Kosovo anti-terrorist units broke up the attack, forcing the group to retreat into Serbia, where it had come from.
It also alleged that Kosovo Serb businessman Milan Radoicic, who has been accused of amassing wealth through criminal and political connections, had plotted with the Serbian state to seize northern Kosovo.
The indictment also accused Serbia of giving help and weapons to the businessman’s group.
It said Radoicic had admitted to judicial authorities in Belgrade that he led the commando squad that ambushed the police patrol.
The court decided Wednesday to proceed with the trial of the three and to consider trying the 42 others in absentia later.
Animosity between Albanian-majority Kosovo and Serbia has persisted since the war between Serbian forces and ethnic Albanian insurgents in the late 1990s led to a NATO intervention.
A sizeable ethnic Serbian minority lives in Kosovo, although the precise numbers are unclear as Serbs have boycotted every census since independence.
For months, Kosovo authorities have overseen legal maneuvers to dismantle the parallel system of social services and political offices backed by Serbia to serve Kosovo’s Serbs.
Kosovo has also effectively outlawed the Serbian dinar, closed banks that relied on the currency and shuttered post offices where Serbian pension payments could be cashed.

French minister ups ante in Eiffel Tower Olympic rings row

French minister ups ante in Eiffel Tower Olympic rings row
Updated 10 min 53 sec ago
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French minister ups ante in Eiffel Tower Olympic rings row

French minister ups ante in Eiffel Tower Olympic rings row
  • At the end of last month, workers removed the 30-ton steel rings that were first installed in June between the first and second floors of the tower

PARIS: A row over the Olympics logo becoming a longterm feature of the Eiffel Tower has taken a fresh turn with a French government minister bidding to take de facto control over the monument away from the city of Paris.
The popular landmark sported giant Olympic rings during this summer’s Olympics and Paralympics. The capital’s mayor Anne Hidalgo — encouraged by the popular success of the Games — said a version of the decoration should adorn the tower until the next Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028.
But that proposal has polarized opinion in the French capital and at the highest level of state. Already, it has been severely criticized by descendants of the tower’s designer Gustave Eiffel, as well as conservation groups.
At the end of last month, workers removed the 30-ton steel rings that were first installed in June between the first and second floors of the tower.
Hidalgo has campaigned for lighter, less prominent, versions of the originals to be installed in their place.
But even this toned-down proposal is too much for skeptics, some of whom are also bitter political enemies of Hidalgo. The Socialist mayor has riled opponents with ambitious pro-cycling and anti-car projects, as well as a recent decision to cut the speed limit on Paris’s ring road, the Peripherique.
One of her most prominent critics is right-wing politician, Rachida Dati, who as leader of the opposition in Paris city hall has often locked horns with Hidalgo. Having failed in a previous bid, she is expected to run for mayor again in 2026 at the next municipal election.
Dati was last month reappointed Culture Minister in Prime Minister Michel Barnier’s government, a position that gives her much influence over listed buildings and their protection.
On Tuesday, she announced that she had asked for the Eiffel Tower to become part of the state’s top heritage list.
If granted, that would, de facto, wrest control over work done on the tower from the city and her rival Hidalgo, placing it in the hands of the central government.
Dati told the daily Le Parisien that the tower’s current status as an ordinary listed monument was no longer sufficient. Only its inclusion on the French state’s top heritage list, reserved for sites of national importance, would offer “true protection,” she argued.
Any work done on a building or monument with full heritage status requires the approval of the regional prefect, who answers to the government, or other state-run agencies.
Should Hidalgo refuse Dati’s request that the tower be added to the state’s top heritage list, Dati said she would make the change “by force.”
Asked about the initiative Tuesday, Hidalgo said the Eiffel Tower was already “very, very well protected.”
Dati’s remarks also caused anger at SETE, the company running the Eiffel Tower, which is majority-owned by the city of Paris.
SETE president Jean-Francois Martins told AFP that the culture minister was entitled to ask for heritage status if a site was endangered. “But that’s not the case for the Eiffel Tower,” he said.
The company was embarking on the tower’s “most ambitious ever” paint job, had renovated lifts and improved accessibility, he added.
Martins accused Dati of using the Eiffel Tower “to further her political aims.”
Meanwhile, some opposition members of Paris’s municipal council have suggested displaying the Olympics logo elsewhere in the capital.
After months of gloom and self-doubt in the run-up to the start of the Olympics on July 26, Parisians threw themselves into the spirit of the Games, which have been hailed as a resounding success.
Hidalgo, in power since 2014, also wants to retain other symbols of the event such as the cauldron placed in front of the Louvre museum, and the statues of illustrious women placed in the river Seine during the opening ceremony.


Bolivia joins South Africa’s ICJ genocide case against Israel

Bolivia joins South Africa’s ICJ genocide case against Israel
Updated 37 min 27 sec ago
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Bolivia joins South Africa’s ICJ genocide case against Israel

Bolivia joins South Africa’s ICJ genocide case against Israel

THE HAGUE: Bolivia has joined South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice that alleges the Israeli Gaza offensive breaches the UN Genocide Convention, the court said on Wednesday.
The South American country is the latest of several nations, including Colombia, Libya, Spain and Mexico, adding their weight to the case against Israel, which vehemently denies the accusations.
Bolivia already announced in November it was severing diplomatic ties over what it described as the “disproportionate” attacks on Gaza by Israel.
At the time, Israel slammed the move as “a surrender to terrorism.”
In a January 26 ruling that made headlines around the world, the ICJ told Israel to do everything possible to prevent acts of genocide during its military operations in Gaza.
The court has also ordered Israel to ensure “unimpeded access” to UN-mandated investigators to look into allegations of genocide.
South Africa has returned several times to the ICJ, arguing that the dire humanitarian situation in the territory compels the court to issue further fresh emergency measures.
In its submission to the court made public on Wednesday, Bolivia argued: “Israel’s genocidal war continues, and the Court’s orders remain dead letters to Israel.”
While ICJ rulings are legally binding, the court has no concrete means to enforce them.
In a separate ruling in July, the ICJ issued an “advisory opinion” that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory was “unlawful” and should end as soon as possible.
Israel’s Gaza campaign has killed at least 42,010 people, the majority of them civilians, according to figures provided by the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
The UN has described the figures as reliable.
The offensive was prompted by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack which resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures that include hostages killed in captivity.
Israel has intensified strikes on Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon since September 23, leaving more than 1,150 people dead, according to an AFP tally of official figures.


EU opens ‘air bridge’ to fly aid to Lebanon

EU opens ‘air bridge’ to fly aid to Lebanon
Updated 40 min 37 sec ago
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EU opens ‘air bridge’ to fly aid to Lebanon

EU opens ‘air bridge’ to fly aid to Lebanon
  • The European Commission said three initial flights were scheduled to carry supplies from Italy and Dubai to Lebanon

BRUSSELS: The European Union said Wednesday it had launched a “humanitarian air bridge” to fly aid to Lebanon as fighting rages between Israel and Hezbollah.
The European Commission said three initial flights were scheduled to carry supplies from Italy and Dubai to the conflict-wracked country, with the first arriving in Beirut on Friday.
“The EU stands by the people affected by the crisis in Lebanon,” commission president Ursula von der Leyen wrote on X.
“From blankets to shelter kits and medicines. More will come.”
The EU last week said it was ramping up spending on humanitarian assistance to Lebanon by 30 million euros ($33 million) in response to the unfolding violence.
Israel has intensified strikes on Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon since September 23, leaving more than 1,150 people dead and forcing more than a million to flee.
Hezbollah fired projectiles into Israel Wednesday and said it foiled ground incursions, a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Lebanon could face destruction like Gaza.
Brussels said that it was already coordinating deliveries of aid to Lebanon from member states Belgium, France, Poland, Slovakia and Spain since last week.


Jailed leader of a prominent election watchdog is on trial in Russia

Jailed leader of a prominent election watchdog is on trial in Russia
Updated 49 min 33 sec ago
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Jailed leader of a prominent election watchdog is on trial in Russia

Jailed leader of a prominent election watchdog is on trial in Russia
  • The case against him is part of the monthslong crackdown on Kremlin critics that the government ratcheted up after sending troops into Ukraine

MOSCOW: A jailed leader of a prominent independent election monitoring group in Russia appeared in court on Wednesday as his trial continued on charges of organizing the work of an “undesirable” organization.
Grigory Melkonyants, co-chair of Russia’s leading election watchdog Golos, faces up to six years in prison if convicted. He has rejected the charges as politically motivated. The case against him is part of the monthslong crackdown on Kremlin critics and rights activists that the government ratcheted up after sending troops into Ukraine.
Golos is an independent watchdog that monitors for and exposes violations in every major election in Russia. It was founded in 2000 and has since played a key role in independent monitoring of elections in Russia. Over the years, it has faced mounting pressure from the authorities. In 2013, the group was designated as a “foreign agent” — a label that implies additional government scrutiny and carries strong pejorative connotations. Three years later, it was liquidated as a non-governmental organization by Russia’s Justice Ministry.
Golos has continued to operate without registering as an NGO, exposing violations in various elections, and in 2021 it was added to a new registry of “foreign agents,” created by the Justice Ministry for groups that are not registered as a legal entity in Russia.
It has not been designated as “undesirable” — a label that under a 2015 law makes involvement with such organizations a criminal offense. But it was once a member of the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations, a group that was declared “undesirable” in Russia in 2021.
Independent journalists, critics, activists and opposition figures in Russia have come under increasing pressure from the government in recent years that intensified significantly amid the conflict in Ukraine. Multiple independent news outlets and rights groups have been shut down, labeled as “foreign agents” or outlawed as “undesirable.” Hundreds of activists and critics of the Kremlin have faced criminal charges.