EU activist court rules against Italy on Albania illegal migrant camps plan

The detention facilities Italy set up in Albania have been empty for months, due to judicial obstacles. Last week, a report found that their construction cost was seven times more than that of an equivalent centre in Italy.

Though the Albanian scheme is stuck in legal limbo, Italy's overall effort to curb undocumented migration by sea has been more successful. There have been 36,557 such migrant arrivals in the year to date, slightly up from the same period of 2024, but far below the 89,165 recorded over the same time span in 2023.

(Reporting by Charlotte Van Campenhout and Alvise Armellini; editing by Dominique Vidalon and Mark Heinrich)