The Disappearance of Social Services and NGOs in Italy and Albania Treaties on Migration

The paper aims to present current research on the response of social workers and NGOs operating in Italy and Albania to the new migrants and asylum seekers reception policy signed by these two countries, a representative example of the border externalization policies implemented by EU and its member states.The study begins with an examination of the currently contentious Memorandum of Understanding that Italy and Albania signed in November 2023 and later enacted into law (No. 14 of February 21, 2024). In summary, the agreement states that the asylum applications of migrants intercepted in the Mediterranean will be processed on Albanian territory, but under Italian and European jurisdiction, and that individuals awaiting expulsion and repatriation will be detained, with an extraterritorial application of administrative detention. The project provides for the transfer of the migrants in different types of reception centres in an area in northern Albania to allow Italy to detain migrants deemed 'non-vulnerable' there. This procedure therefore does not provide for the application of all the social policies foreseen in the framework of reception in Europe. An analysis of the EU's increasingly lauded action plan, which aims to “strengthen and accelerate asylum and registration procedures,” shows that the text speaks only of strictly medical assistance for migrants and never of broader social assistance, nor of its main actors, social workers, while there is an unclear call-out of NGOs. Our research continues with an investigation on whether and how Italian and Albanian social workers and NGOs are reacting to this new experience. The research involves analysis of the Italian and Albanian social workers professional orders and NGOs websites and analysis of official stances, as well as interviews with qualified witnesses and individual social workers to understand whether or not the views of individual actors differ from official stances.