After 36 hours at sea, an Italian patrol boat with a first group of migrants on board has docked at the port of Shëngjini in northwestern Albania, reports news agency Ansa early on Wednesday morning.
The 16 migrants originally come from Egypt and Bangladesh, but most recently from the Italian island of Lampedusa and previously from Libya. They will now be housed in newly built facilities in Albania, where their asylum applications will be processed.
The five-year agreement between Rome and Tirana was signed in November last year. The agreement states that up to 3,000 migrants picked up at sea by Italy's coastguard can be accommodated in Albania.
The controversial agreement has been praised in some European countries, but also criticized by several human rights groups. On Tuesday, Meloni claimed that the agreement is "brave". The European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has recently stated that the union may "draw lessons" from the agreement.
According to Albania's Prime Minister Edi Rama, several other countries have shown interest in a similar deal.
We have been asked by others and we have said no, he told reporters in Luxembourg on Tuesday, according to AFP.
