More migrants transferred to Italy’s ‘return hub’ in Albania, Italy braces for national rail strike, and more news on Friday.
More migrants transferred to Italy’s ‘return hub’ in Albania
Italy has increased transfers of migrants to a centre in Albania, a civil society organisation told AFP on Thursday, following a tightening of EU migration policy.
The costly centre is one of far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s flagship schemes to tackle illegal immigration and is being closely watched in Europe amid calls for Brussels to finance “return hubs” outside the bloc.
The centre in Gjader has stood largely empty since opening in 2024 due to a raft of legal challenges, but that may change due to new measures adopted by the European Parliament aimed at making it easier for member states to return asylum seekers to countries Europe deems “safe”.
While transfers over the past year have been small, with at most some twenty people held there at a time, it now holds around 90 people, an Italian interior ministry source told AFP.
Italy braces for national rail strike
After walkouts by airline and airport staff caused hundreds of flights to be cancelled on Thursday, passengers in Italy face further disruption from Friday evening through Saturday due to a planned 24-hour rail strike.
Railway staff including train drivers and onboard crew from the Ferrovie dello Stato group, which includes Trenitalia, Italo and Trenord, are set to walk out from 9pm on Friday until 8.59pm on Saturday.
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Thursday’s air transport strike resulted in the cancellation of around 300 flights, with easyJet and ITA Airways hit the hardest, according to Italian news agency Ansa.
The walkout was originally planned for February 16th but was blocked by Italy’s transport minister because it coincided with the Winter Olympic Games.
Viewership of Milan-Cortina Olympics shatters expectations
Across continents, this year’s Winter Olympics drew in high rates of viewers, both through broadcast and streaming.
Two out of three people in Italy watched the Games, more than the number of spectators for the previous three Winter Olympics combined. Even with the time difference, more than 80 percent of the potential audience in Japan watched the coverage.
The biggest win is in the United States, where the tournament drew 96 percent more viewers than the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, according to NBC.
More than 23.5 million of the network’s viewers tuned into this year’s games – the largest Winter Games audience in the United States in more than a decade.