The approximately 300 Italian police officers deployed in Albania to control migrants taken to the repatriation centers of Shengjin and Gjider, in Albania, will be housed in several hotel facilities, in single rooms, with "catering and related services", for a total cost of nearly 9 million euros per year. This is what the Ministry of the Interior foresees.
The protocol that entrusts the service for one year was approved on August 5th and the daily cost for each single agent is 80 euros.
The contract was won by the Rafaelo Rosort company "in acceptance of an offer deemed appropriate and corresponding to the needs of the Administration".
These are four-star resorts also equipped with swimming pools and recreational facilities. Before the contract was awarded, the Ministry of the Interior, according to what has been learned, carried out a series of security checks and to exclude that the structures were linked to criminal environments.
The secretary general of Uilpa Polizia Penitenziaria Gennarino De Fazio intervened on the matter, underlining that «the contracting company will make available to the operators two hotels with private beach, wellness center, swimming pools and restaurant. All this while the Ministry of Justice, Department of Penitentiary Administration continues to keep the members of the Penitentiary Police employed in the management of the penitentiary in Gjadër in prefabricated structures, in multiple rooms, without the most basic furnishings».
The allocation also triggered immediate political controversy: "The agreement with Albania continues to cause damage. To the violations of human rights of an operation that justice has already branded as illegitimate is added the enormous waste of money just as the government is struggling with a recessive maneuver that does not guarantee essential services, first and foremost public health", says the secretary of the Democratic Party Elly Schlein . Adding: " It is a scandal, perpetuated also to the detriment of Italian citizens. Giorgia Meloni burns millions more of public money to host Italian police forces in Albanian resorts . Agents who would be much more useful in Italy, where instead they are not put in the best conditions to do their job. The truth is that we are facing a failure that weighs on the pockets and consciences of Italians. They should realize this once and for all, stop and go back".
"The Meloni Government - says the leader of Italia Viva Matteo Renzi - spends millions of euros to send Italian policemen and carabinieri to Albanian resorts because the prime minister cannot admit she was wrong. Those policemen and carabinieri - adds Renzi - would be needed in the stations, in the suburbs, on the Italian streets. Not in the Albanian resorts. We are throwing away Italian taxpayers' money for an operation that serves no purpose".
(Online Union)
