(Bloomberg) -- Italy will finance two migration centers it will set up in Albania, following an agreement reached this week between Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Albania’s Edi Rama.

Rome has agreed to build and manage two centers to manage the arrival of migrants who landed in Italy, and to process asylum applications and the possible repatriation of immigrants. Both centers could process 3,000 border procedures and police from the two countries will work together, Meloni said in an interview to Rome newspaper il Messaggero on Tuesday. 

“I believe that it can become a model of collaboration between EU countries and non-EU countries on the management of migratory flows,” Meloni, who leads a right-wing coalition, said of the deal. 

“We informed the EU Commission about the plan and we did not receive criticisms,” Meloni said in reference to the bloc’s executive arm. In the past, the bloc has questioned whether such schemes are in line with international rules.

 

The accord is part of Meloni’s wider plan to tackle a surge of arrivals to Italian shores, one of the biggest waves since 2016. Meloni previously floated the idea of creating such centers also in North Africa. Meloni has already asked the EU to help contain the emergency.

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