The offshore detention of migrants and asylum seekers under the Italy-Albania Agreement is jeopardizing people’s safety, liberty and human rights, Amnesty International said in a briefing published as events in Ceuta continue to expose the dangers of long-standing European Union (EU) migration policies that centre on exclusion and containment.
Italy: Extraterritorial migration detention and human rights obligations
analyzes the 2023 agreement to establish two migration facilities in Albania run by Italian authorities, which has led to the forcible transfer of hundreds of people who face being locked up, many unable to access legal help. The conditions there and harmful human costs of Italy’s offshore policies have driven several individuals to self-harm or attempt suicide.
“Offshore detention is ultimately aimed at deterrence and trying to shift and evade both the responsibilities of responding to people migrating and the obligation to provide asylum to those who need it. Italy’s deal with Albania shows yet again the unavoidable human rights costs of this approach,” said Eve Geddie, Director of Amnesty International’s European Institutions Office.
“Just before the deal entered into force, Amnesty International sounded the alarm on the harmful impact it would inevitably have on the rights of people in distress at sea, and of people transferred to Albania. Clearly, these concerns have now materialized.”
Amnesty International believe its findings must serve as a warning to the EU about the disastrous impact of migration policies that seek to increasingly rely on countries outside its borders to manage migration, at the expense of expanding safe and regular pathways.
Unnecessary cruelty
Between October 2024 and January 2025, Italy carried out three maritime operations and forcibly transferred 74 people directly from international waters to Albania under the Agreement. Following numerous Italian court rulings which overturned detention orders for these p
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