On 11 April 2025, 40 migrants were transferred from various Italian “Centri di permanenza per il rimpatrio” (Immigration Detention Centers, CPRs) and arrived at the port of Shëngjin, Albania, under the bilateral Italy–Albania migration protocol. They were taken to the closed metal container cells in Gjadër, where they remain in de facto detention, under constant surveillance, without access to legal assistance or judicial review.
Fair Trials is deeply concerned by the conditions in which these individuals are being held, and by the total lack of transparency surrounding the procedures. To date, the Italian authorities have not disclosed a full list of those transferred, nor provided clarity on their nationalities, personal histories, or legal status. This lack of disclosure raises serious questions about the criteria used to select individuals for transfer, whether or not they have criminal records, whether they were undergoing asylum procedures, or whether any individualised assessments were made at all.
Eyewitness accounts gathered by Cecilia Strada, MP for the Democratic Party (PD), and by civil society, confirm that migrants were restrained with plastic wrist ties not only during disembarkation in Albania, but throughout the entire journey.
This practice, used on people not accused of any crime, represents a gross misuse of coercive measures. They violate the presumption of innocence and amount to a form of symbolic criminalisation. Depriving individuals of liberty in these conditions, without charges, access to lawyers, or information about the length or legality of their detention, constitutes arbitrary detention under international law. It violates the principles of necessity and proportionality in the use of restraints and further entrenches the perception that these individuals are dangerous or criminal by default. The treatment of migrants under this protocol is emblematic of a broader trend of misuse of state power in the context of migration management.
Fair Trials reiterates that detention should always be a measure of last resort, justified only when strictly necessary and subject to robust legal safeguards.
The extraterritorial nature of this agreement makes the situation even more problematic: by transferring individuals outside of their territory, Italian authorities are creating a zone of legal and judicial opacity, beyond the reach of accountability mechanisms.
Fair Trials calls on the Italian and Albanian authorities to:
- Immediately suspend forced transfers to Albania.
- Guarantee access to legal assistance and information to all individuals detained in these facilities.
- Allow independent human rights monitors to access the centres in Gjadër and Shëngjin.
- Migrants must not be treated as security threats simply for seeking protection. Respect for due process and dignity must apply to all people, regardless of their migration status.
