Italian PM hails ‘courageous’ Albania migrant deal

Italian PM hails ‘courageous’ Albania migrant deal
Italy’s PM Giorgia Meloni and Albania’s Prime Minister Edi Rama visit the migrant processing center in Shengjin, Albania June 5, 2024. (Reuters/File)
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Updated 15 October 2024
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Italian PM hails ‘courageous’ Albania migrant deal

Italian PM hails ‘courageous’ Albania migrant deal
  • “It is a new, courageous, unprecedented path, but one that perfectly reflects the European spirit,” Meloni said
  • The scheme comes ahead of a European Union summit in Brussels this week, where migration is on the table

ROME: Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Tuesday brushed aside criticism of a controversial deal to send migrants for processing in Albania, a European first which other European leaders are watching closely.

Italy on Monday began transferring the first migrants to the centers — 16 men from Egypt and Bangladesh — who are due to arrive Wednesday.

“It is a new, courageous, unprecedented path, but one that perfectly reflects the European spirit and has everything it takes to be followed also with other non-EU nations,” Meloni said.

The scheme comes ahead of a European Union summit in Brussels this week, where migration is on the table.

In a letter to member states ahead of the talks, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said the bloc would “be able to draw lessons from this (Albania) experience in practice.”

Italy’s two processing centers in Albania will be operated under Italian law, with Italian security and staff, and judges hearing cases by video from Rome.

But human rights groups question whether there will be enough protection for asylum seekers.

“The first people to arrive in Italy’s new detention centers deserve better than to be subject to this dangerous political experiment,” said Susanna Zanfrini, Italy director for the International Rescue Committee, a humanitarian organization.

“Even as the doors open on these new facilities, some huge questions remain unanswered about how Italy will ensure that people’s rights are safeguarded outside of the EU’s jurisdiction.”

Italy’s Mediterranean coast has long been a target for migrants hoping to reach Europe.

Meloni’s post-fascist Brothers of Italy party promised to halt the arrivals during 2022 national elections.

She agreed with Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama in November 2023 to open the asylum centers.

Addressing the Senate in Rome, Meloni said her government was setting a “good example” to other countries on how to tackle irregular migration.

She added that Italy would organize an informal meeting at the EU summit ” between the member states most interested in the migration issue.”

At talks in Luxembourg on Tuesday on Albania’s negotiations to eventually join the EU, Rama said, however, that his deal with Italy may not be easily replicated by other countries.

“We have been asked by others and we have said no,” he told reporters, pointing to the long history of close Italy-Albania ties.

The five-year deal, estimated to cost Italy 160 million euros ($175 million) annually, covers certain adult male migrants intercepted on Italian boats in international waters, but within Italy’s search and rescue area.

Those sent to Albania will be from countries deemed “safe” — a debated criterion but one that allows for a more simplified repatriation process.

Critics say the numbers that can be processed in Albania at any one time — initially put at around 3,000 by Rome, but now reported to be much lower — will have little impact on overall numbers.

“In the last three days, more than 1,600 migrants have landed in Italy. An Italian ship is transporting 16 of them to Albania,” noted Matteo Villa, a researcher at the ISPI think tank.

Almost 160,000 migrants landed on Italian shores last year, up from 105,000 the year before, according to interior ministry data.

Numbers have sharply fallen in 2024, with 54,000 arrivals recorded so far, compared to almost 140,000 in the same period in 2023.

However, the government hopes that intercepting people at sea and sending them to Albania before they reach Italy will act as a deterrent.

Rome has also moved to limit the activities of charity ships that rescue migrants in the Central Mediterranean.

Under the new scheme, migrants will first arrive at a center in the northern Albanian port of Shengjin for registration and health checks. They will then go to a center in nearby Gjader to await processing of their asylum claims.

The Gjader facility — a maze of prefabricated buildings surrounded by high walls and police guards — includes a section for migrants whose asylum applications have been rejected, as well as a small jail.


One dead, five injured as car slams into crowd in France: prosecutors

One dead, five injured as car slams into crowd in France: prosecutors
Updated 5 sec ago
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One dead, five injured as car slams into crowd in France: prosecutors

One dead, five injured as car slams into crowd in France: prosecutors

ROUEN, France: A car slammed into a crowd in the town of Evreux in northern France early Saturday, killing one person and injuring five others, prosecutors told AFP.

After an altercation at a wine bar, “a person allegedly went to fetch a vehicle” and “deliberately reversed at high speed into a crowd outside the establishment,” prosecutor Remi Coutin said, adding that two people were in critical condition.


EU top diplomat ‘not optimistic’ on sanctioning Israel

EU top diplomat ‘not optimistic’ on sanctioning Israel
Updated 15 min 19 sec ago
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EU top diplomat ‘not optimistic’ on sanctioning Israel

EU top diplomat ‘not optimistic’ on sanctioning Israel

COPENHAGEN: EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said Saturday she was “not optimistic” the bloc would take action against Israel over the war in Gaza due to splits between member states.

Foreign ministers meeting in Denmark will discuss a proposal to suspend EU funding to Israeli start-ups as initial punishment for the situation in Gaza.

But the bloc has so far failed to garner the majority needed to take that step — let alone move ahead with more forceful measures against Israel.

“I’m not very optimistic, and today we are definitely not going to adopt decisions,” Kallas told journalists at the start of the Denmark meeting.

“It sends a signal that we are divided.”

Splits within the European Union between countries backing Israel and those favoring the Palestinians have seen the 27-nation bloc often left hamstrung in the face of the dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

A string of EU countries are pushing for more far-reaching punishment for Israel, but have been frustrated.

Denmark’s foreign minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen, whose country holds the EU’s rotating presidency, insisted the bloc “must change words into action.”

He said Copenhagen backed suspending trade cooperation with Israel, sanctioning far-right Israeli ministers, and banning imports from illegal settlements.

Israel is facing pressure at home and abroad to end its offensive in Gaza, where the vast majority of the population has been displaced at least once and the United Nations has declared a famine.

The war in Gaza began after Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 63,025 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Gaza that the UN considers reliable.


Floods, landslides kill at least 11 in India’s Jammu region

Floods, landslides kill at least 11 in India’s Jammu region
Updated 30 August 2025
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Floods, landslides kill at least 11 in India’s Jammu region

Floods, landslides kill at least 11 in India’s Jammu region
  • An intense monsoon rainstorm in the Indian-administered territory since Tuesday has caused widespread chaos
  • Floods and landslides are common during the June-September monsoon season

SRINAGAR, India: Floods and landslides triggered by record-breaking rain killed at least 11 people, including four children, in India’s Jammu and Kashmir, officials said Saturday.

An intense monsoon rainstorm in the Indian-administered territory since Tuesday has caused widespread chaos, with raging water smashing into bridges and swamping homes.

A local disaster official said that Ramban and Reasi districts were hit by heavy rainfall and landslides on Friday night, killing 11 people.

One child aged five was trapped in the debris and still missing, he added.

On Wednesday, a landslide slammed the pilgrimage route to the Hindu shrine of Vaishno Devi in Jammu, killing 41 people.

India’s Meteorological Department said the torrential rain had smashed records at two locations in the region.

Jammu and Udhampur recorded their highest 24-hour rainfall on Wednesday, with 296 millimeters (11.6 inches) in Jammu, nine percent higher than the 1973 record, and 629.4 mm (24.8 inches) in Udhampur – a staggering 84 percent surge over the 2019 mark.

Floods and landslides are common during the June-September monsoon season, but experts say climate change, coupled with poorly planned development, is increasing their frequency, severity and impact.

Climate experts from the Himalayan-focused International Center for Integrated Mountain Development warn that a spate of disasters illustrates the dangers when extreme rain combines with mountain slopes weakened by melting permafrost, as well as building developments in flood-prone valleys.

Powerful torrents driven by intense rain smashed into Chisoti village in Indian-administered Kashmir on August 14, killing at least 65 people and leaving another 33 missing.

Floods on August 5 overwhelmed the Himalayan town of Dharali in India’s Uttarakhand state and buried it in mud. The likely death toll from that disaster is more than 70 but has not been confirmed.


Thailand power vacuum will ‘not affect’ border security: defense ministry

Thailand power vacuum will ‘not affect’ border security: defense ministry
Updated 30 August 2025
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Thailand power vacuum will ‘not affect’ border security: defense ministry

Thailand power vacuum will ‘not affect’ border security: defense ministry
  • Constitutional Court sacked prime minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra over her handling of a border row with Cambodia

BANGKOK: Thailand’s lack of a formal government will not affect border security with Cambodia, the defense ministry said Saturday, as the kingdom scrambles to fill a power vacuum following the dismissal of the prime minister by the Constitutional Court.

The Southeast Asian nation was thrown into political turmoil on Friday when the court sacked prime minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra over her handling of a border row with Cambodia, saying she had “not upheld the ethical code of conduct.”

The ruling has left Thailand with an acting prime minister, Phumtham Wechayachai, and a caretaker cabinet which will stay on until a new government is formed as early as next week.

On Saturday morning the acting cabinet held a special meeting confirming the arrangement, with no new major announcements.

Deputy Defense Minister Natthapon Nakpanich said having an acting government would “not affect” the country’s ability to safeguard its sovereignty amid a fragile ceasefire at the border with Cambodia.

“It’s not a problem. The army chief has already assigned responsibilities to handle specific situations,” he told reporters.

Paetongtarn, daughter of billionaire ex-prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, was suspended from office last month after being accused of failing to stand up for Thailand in a June call with powerful former Cambodian leader Hun Sen, which was leaked online.

In July, tensions between Thailand and Cambodia spiralled into the two sides’ deadliest military clashes in decades, with more than 40 people killed and 300,000 forced to flee their homes along the border.

Thailand and Cambodia’s leaders agreed to an “unconditional” ceasefire at the end of July, after five days of combat along their jungle-clad frontier.

A nine-judge panel in the Constitutional Court ruled by six to three on Friday that Paetongtarn had not upheld the ethical standards required of a prime minister and removed her from office.

The ruling, which also dissolved her cabinet, came a year after the same court ousted her predecessor as prime minister, Srettha Thavisin, in an unrelated ethics case.

Paetongtarn was the sixth prime minister from the political movement founded by her father to face judgment by the Constitutional Court.

Parliament will vote on a new prime minister perhaps as early as next week, but there is no obvious replacement for Paetongtarn waiting to take over.

Parties have been eager to meet and strategise ways to secure a majority vote in parliament for their own candidates.

Under the constitution, only candidates nominated for prime minister at the last general election in 2023 are eligible.

Four of those names are out of the running, three of whom are banned by court order and one whose party failed to get enough MPs elected to qualify.

The remaining four include Prayut Chan-O-Cha, an ex-general who led a 2014 coup and served as prime minister until 2023, and Anutin Charnvirakul, leader of the Bhumjaithai party which was a former partner in Paetongtarn’s coalition government.


EU’s Kallas says Russia won’t get frozen assets back without paying reparations

EU’s Kallas says Russia won’t get frozen assets back without paying reparations
Updated 30 August 2025
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EU’s Kallas says Russia won’t get frozen assets back without paying reparations

EU’s Kallas says Russia won’t get frozen assets back without paying reparations
  • Some $245.85 billion of Russian assets are frozen in the bloc under sanctions imposed on Moscow
  • Members have called for the EU to confiscate the assets and use them to support Kyiv

COPENHAGEN: European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Saturday it was not possible to imagine giving back Russian assets frozen inside the bloc due to the war in Ukraine unless Moscow has paid reparations.

“We can’t possibly imagine that ... if ... there is a ceasefire or peace deal that these assets are given back to Russia if they haven’t paid for the reparations,” she told reporters before a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Copenhagen.

The EU says some 210 billion euros ($245.85 billion) of Russian assets are frozen in the bloc under sanctions imposed on Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine.

Ukraine and some EU countries, including Poland and the Baltic states, have called for the EU to confiscate the assets and use them to support Kyiv.

But EU heavyweights France and Germany – along with Belgium, which holds most of the assets – have rebuffed such calls.

They have pointed out that the EU has earmarked future profits from the assets to repay support for Ukraine and questioned whether there is a legal basis to confiscate them.

Diplomats say the debate is now turning to how the funds might be used, after the war in Ukraine comes to a halt.