Giorgia Meloni’s migration "solution": Europe’s outsourced crisis, wrapped in hypocrisy

We're diving into the wacky world of migration policy, courtesy of Italy’s right-wing firebrand, Giorgia Meloni.

You might remember her as the woman whose political ideology was once seen as too far-right even for Europe’s far-right. Well, guess what? Now she’s setting the tone for migration policies, not just in Italy, but across the European Union. It’s like if the kid who sat alone at lunch suddenly became prom queen.

Only, instead of prom, it’s about setting up camps for migrants in Albania. Yeah, I know, we’ll get to that.

So, what's going on? In short, Meloni decided that Italy's shores, especially places like Lampedusa, are tired of welcoming migrants. And when I say "welcoming," I mean boats crammed with desperate people fleeing war, persecution, and all the lovely side effects of human suffering that the world seems to ignore. So, Meloni’s ingenious solution? Ship them off to Albania! Because if there’s one thing that screams “respecting human dignity,” it’s telling people, "No, no, don’t come here. Go to this random place across the Adriatic where you didn’t even plan on going.”

Now, let’s step back and try to make sense of this. The plan is essentially to send migrants intercepted at sea to Albania while their asylum requests are processed. Why Albania? Well, because Albania needs a better PR strategy, and Meloni’s ready to throw a few euros their way. The deal has been praised as a groundbreaking partnership and a "win-win" for both countries, by which they mean it’s a win for Meloni, and Albania gets to pretend it’s important on the European stage. What could possibly go wrong?

For starters, you’ve got human rights groups screaming into the void, as they often do when governments decide that people fleeing violence are somehow the problem. Amnesty International and other groups have been pretty clear: this violates international law, specifically laws around the treatment of asylum seekers. But here’s where it gets weird: Meloni and her supporters basically shrug and say, “Laws...”

It’s like watching a toddler insist that gravity is a suggestion while they fling their food across the room. In this case, the food is European human rights values, and gravity is the Geneva Convention.

Now, Meloni is hoping the rest of Europe follows suit. In her dreams, this plan is the blueprint for the EU to deal with migration. I mean, it makes sense, right? Europe’s been dealing with this "migration crisis" (crisis for whom?) by trying every trick in the book: building walls, making deals with Turkey and Libya, and now, outsourcing the entire process. Albania is just the latest player in Europe’s version of The Hunger Games. It’s like when companies outsource their customer service calls to some far-off country, except in this case, it’s human lives at stake, and Albania is the call center.

What’s even better is how Albania’s leaders are selling this. Edi Rama, the Albanian prime minister, has been like, "Look, we’re totally on board, as long as this doesn’t turn us into Europe’s dumping ground." Oh, sweet child. That’s literally what this is. No matter how you dress it up with fancy language about “partnerships” and “cooperation,” Albania is the EU’s new holding pen for people Europe doesn’t want to deal with. At least they’ve learned from the UK’s Rwanda experiment and slapped some terms and conditions on it. You’ve got to respect the hustle.

But here’s where it really gets interesting. The European Union, that bastion of democratic values, human rights, and peace, is now copying the playbook of some of the world's most authoritarian regimes. We’re talking about the kind of policies that would make Trump and Orban nod in approval. Sending migrants to third-party countries for processing is essentially a massive outsourcing of the moral responsibility Europe claims to care about so much.

Imagine the EU as a fancy restaurant, boasting about its ethical standards, and then you find out they outsource their cooking to a fast-food joint down the street.

And let’s talk about how well that’s worked in the past. The EU already has deals with Turkey and Libya to keep migrants from reaching its shores. And guess what? Both countries have been accused of horrifying abuses against migrants, including torture, arbitrary detention, and outright violence. It’s like Meloni looked at those examples and thought, “Sure, there’s a bit of torture, but have you seen how few migrants are crossing the sea now? Success!”

It’s like celebrating that your house isn’t flooding anymore because you just dumped all the water into your neighbor’s basement.

A part of this whole situation is the sheer audacity of Meloni's gamble. She’s betting on this being the future of European migration policy. And frankly, she might not be wrong. As much as we’d like to pretend that Europe is still a beacon of hope and human rights, the reality is that the continent has been slowly creeping towards more restrictive, hardline policies on migration for years.

Even Germany, once the poster child for compassion during the 2015 refugee crisis, has toughened its stance. Olaf Scholz’s government is now cozying up to Meloni’s ideas like they’ve just discovered the cheat codes to avoid bad press while still kicking migrants out.

Look, the real problem here is not Albania. It’s not even Meloni, though she certainly deserves a trophy for cynicism. The real problem is that Europe, as a whole, doesn’t know what to do about migration. Every year, tens of thousands of people risk their lives to reach Europe, and every year, Europe does its best to pretend those people don’t exist. When they can’t ignore them, they shuffle them off to some distant place, hoping the media stops paying attention long enough for the problem to go away.

So, what’s going to happen next?

Well, expect more of the same. Countries will keep trying to shift responsibility elsewhere. Maybe Spain will ship migrants off to Morocco next, or Greece will start sending people to Cyprus. Europe will keep treating migration like it’s a nuisance to be managed rather than a humanitarian crisis that needs actual, thoughtful solutions.

Meanwhile, people will continue to die at sea, or worse, languish in detention centers in countries that barely have the resources to take care of their own citizens, let alone thousands of desperate newcomers.

The final, irony here is that Europe’s population is declining. That’s right, folks, the continent is aging rapidly, and birth rates are plummeting. If Europe were smart which, let’s face it, is a big "if"; they’d be welcoming these migrants with open arms, recognizing that they are literally the workforce of tomorrow. But no, instead of seeing opportunity, Europe sees a threat. And so, they double down on policies that are not just morally bankrupt, but also deeply self-destructive.

So, here’s the real question: how long before Europe realizes that its "solution" to migration is actually the problem?

How many more human rights will they sacrifice on the altar of political expediency before they acknowledge that outsourcing the issue isn’t solving anything?

Will Albania ,or whatever country is next on the EU’s list of convenient partners ,be the place where Europe finally loses its soul? Or are we already there?

Go ahead, Europe, keep building those walls. Just don’t be surprised when you look around one day and realize you’re the ones locked inside.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxAb87CDWKc