So, like…I wasn’t kidding about the smoke part. European countries tend to do things with a little more flair than we do when disagreements arise. We’ve all seen the videos of hot-tempered parliamentarians pounding desks, waving arms, flinging chairs – or themselves – over tables at opposition members of their august legislative bodies.

This was the first time I’d seen smokes bombs set off by the representatives themselves, while the country’s prime minister calmly stood waiting for the air to clear of both fumes and curses.

On closer inspection, I do see the requisite pile of chairs down in the well there, too.

Kind of wild visuals.

BREAKING 🇦🇱 : Smoke bombs in the Parliament of #Albania!

Chaos erupted in Albanian parliament as the Members of the opposition continued to block the work of the parliament by overturning almost all the chairs in the hall and placing them in the middle of the hall. pic.twitter.com/WdJm16Rlsr

— Zaid Ahmd  (@realzaidzayn) November 9, 2023

Having access to an Albanian authority in the family, I sent this to our son Ebola so he could quiz his better half about “What caused the ruckus?”

When he got back to me, I was and wasn’t surprised, and you’ll feel the same, I’m sure.

I wasn’t surprised because the root of it boils down to the enormous challenges facing the European Union – and particularly Italy at the moment – thanks to hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants coming across the Mediterranean from Africa.

What was surprising was how and why the Albanians came to be involved. It turns out that, without talking to anyone else much at all, the respective prime ministers of both Albania and Italy came to a girls’ agreement between themselves. Decided to sort of help each other out.

Italy will build two detention centers in Albania to house migrants trying to reach its shores, Prime Minister Georgia Meloni said Monday, in an attempt to control migration figures that have almost doubled in the year since she took office.

Meloni said the facilities are due to open next spring and will initially take in 3,000 people. Once the centers are “fully up and running,” Meloni said her government hoped they could process up to 36,000 people a year.

There’s cash in it for Albania, and some slippery sleight of hand for both countries as they work around European Union regulations. For one thing, while Albania was granted EU membership candidate status a decade ago, they’ve never joined – a distinction which comes in handy when one has #rulez one needs to ignore.

…One center will be used to process migrants rescued by boats at sea; the second will be used to house migrants who qualify to apply for asylum in the EU. It is unclear what happens to those who do not qualify, but the Meloni government has focused on using the threat of immediate deportation as means to deter migrants from arriving on Italy’s shores.

Immediate deportation is not allowed inside the EU due to human rights statutes that allow all arrivals to apply for asylum. Because Albania is not an EU member, those rules will not apply.

…The plan would allow Italy to skirt the Dublin agreement, which states that the first country in which migrants arrive must care for them and process their cases.

The other advantage to Albania’s non-EU serf status is that there was no rush to let Brussels know what the girls had planned, at least not right away. They could tell EU HQ when they were damn good and ready since they weren’t required to clear anything beforehand.

That has some “nobody told us nuthin’” feathers ruffled bigly.

…The European Commission issued a terse response Tuesday afternoon. “We’re in contact with the Italian authorities because we need to see the details. We’re asking to receive detailed information on this type of arrangement,” a spokesperson said.

ITALY – Meloni pisses of the EU by shipping her illegal migrants to Albania (For money obvs)

NGOs say Italy’s migration agreement with Albania is dehumanising and ‘strikes a further blow to the principle of EU solidarity’

The Italians cheered & the UN is in full tantrum 💥 pic.twitter.com/1JlAEzrBi3

— Elander & the News (@ElanderNews) November 7, 2023

Even the official “Preliminary Comments on the Italian-Albanian Deal” from the European Council on Refugees and Exiles is one big sniffly whine.

ECRE provides its preliminary comments on the deal announced between Italy and Albania. It should be noted that the text of the agreement contains very little detail about the purpose of the proposed centres and the procedures that will be applied there. There is also limited information available about the scope of the agreement and which categories of people will be covered by it. Thus, comments can only be preliminary and to some extent speculative, and analysis may change once more information has been provided.

Heads are exploding all over the NGO and refugee wrangling community at the very idea of it. Amnesty Intl was in outraged stompy foot mode right out the gate.

Italy: Deal to detain refugees and migrants offshore in Albania ‘illegal and unworkable’

…This agreement is about refoulement, a practice which is banned under international and European law, and for which Italy has already been condemned by the European Court of Human Rights. It is illegal, unworkable, and it must be scrapped.

“Italy has claimed that the people detained would remain under Italian jurisdiction, but the reality is that the deal will be used to circumvent national, international and EU law. That could have devastating consequences for people seeking asylum, who could be subjected to lengthy detention and other violations, outside the scrutiny of Italian judicial authorities. The European Commission has already made it clear that EU asylum law cannot be applied outside the EU.

Back in Albania, some of the other folks who probably should have been told about “the deal” made their displeasure known when word broke. The “other folks” being Parliament, affected elected officials in the areas proposed for these camps, and Albanians in general.

Prime Minister Rama has some ‘splainin’ to do.

…But for many other Albanians, confusion and even anger is the main feeling for the surprise announcement.

Albania will offer two facilities, starting with the port of Shengjin, a main tourist spot about 75 kilometers (46 miles) south of the capital Tirana that has attracted almost 1 million tourists this year in the surrounding area.

Many fear that the accommodation center will have a negative impact on the country. Albania has become a major tourism magnet this year, bringing more than 9 million tourists to its pristine coastline so far.

“A refugee camp at the port is not compatible with the government’s idea of a European elite tourism,” said Arilda Lleshi, a 27-year-old human rights activist, speaking from Tirana.

Many people were upset by the fact that “such an agreement with wide social impact was done without a wide social consultation,” Lleshi said. “It seems our prime minister continuously takes over to resolve the world’s issues to get some credit internationally, without consulting with people beforehand.”

Albanians are put off by the notion of importing up to 36,000 young males a year – there won’t be any women, children, elderly, or families in these camps. That segregation could be an explosion waiting to happen in its own right.

Members of Parliament are also incensed at the thought of Italian-government-run anything being set up on their sovereign soil, whatever they’re paying for it.

…Italy has committed to pay for the construction of two centers that can hold up to 3,000 migrants at a time.

Albania would also provide external security for the two centers, which would be under Italian jurisdiction. While the memorandum offers Albania broad security and financial reassurances, it fails to describe what migration procedures would be followed inside, experts noted.

They are completely legitimate concerns when Albania’s total population isn’t even at the 3M mark – they’re sitting at around 2.8M right now.

Perhaps the prime minister of such a small country should have given a little more thought to communication, instead of just springing the surprise on her people.

…The agreement must be approved in parliament before it takes effect. Albania’s political opposition has asked the prime minister to report to parliament before it is voted on. A vote hasn’t been scheduled yet.

Rama’s governing Socialists have 74 seats in the 140-seat parliament, so in theory, the government shouldn’t have any issues in passing it. But the deal has created such consternation among some sectors of the population that passing it could become problematic.

Yeah. Somebody probably shoulda told somebody.

[CUE: SMOKE BOMBS]