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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Lorenzo Tondo in Palermo

Italian police and social workers leave Albania after staffing empty migrant centres

Giorgia Meloni
The credibility of Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s prime minister, is at stake after she made immigration a central campaigning issue. Photograph: Guglielmo Mangiapane/Reuters

Dozens of Italian police officers and social workers deployed by Italy’s far-right government in migrant centres in Albania have returned home, after it emerged that the facilities, praised as a model to reduce refugee arrivals, have been empty for weeks.

Just over a month after the much-publicised opening of the multimillion-euro detention centres for asylum seekers in Albania, which were supposed to receive up to 3,000 men a month, more than 50 police officers were moved back to Italy two weeks ago while dozens of social workers have left over the weekend, with their presence in Albania considered “needless”.

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