Italian navy ship carrying group of migrants departs for Albania

In a development marking a new chapter in European migration policy, an Italian navy vessel carrying a group of migrants departed for Albania, following a recent bilateral agreement between the two countries.

The migrants, who had been rescued in the Mediterranean, are being transferred to a processing center in Albania as part of a plan aimed at easing pressure on Italy’s overburdened asylum system.

The agreement, signed late last year, allows Italy to establish migrant reception facilities on Albanian soil, a move praised by some as innovative burden-sharing and criticized by others as offshoring responsibility.