The Italian Navy ship Cassiopea arrived this morning at the Albanian port of Sengin.

It is carrying 49 asylum seekers who will be taken to the two closed centers that Italy has set up in northern Albania. They are mainly from Egypt, Bangladesh and Gambia.

Moreover, according to the Italian press, at this stage, there are no longer in Albania“cultural mediators” of the International Organization for Migration, who in the past months had taken over part of the identification procedures.

Their cooperation contract expired on 10 January and this responsibility is being temporarily taken over by experts selected by the Italian authorities.

Based on their judgment, it will also be decided whether asylum seekers belong to vulnerable categories or groups of citizens subject to persecution, and whether they can remain in these closed structures until their asylum claim is examined.