Rama: With the arrangement for migrants, we honored ourselves and deep friendship with Italy

I want to first explain a point that has made a lot of fuss, because today I'm talking to friends here at the Paris Peace Forum, opening tomorrow, about only men coming. That's not true. The prime minister spoke of minors and pregnant women who would not be involved in these trips to the waiting centre in Albania. These are just pregnant women. It is very important because even in Albania this was misunderstood by some concern, which would be right if it was true”, Rama said.

In my opinion, this agreement was born perfectly naturally. It's not surprising, but I thought that the debate in Italy or even Albania could be a little calmer, especially in Albania, much less because it's not a capitulation agreement, it's not an invasion agreement, it's not an agreement that has been made without carefully counting skills and opportunities. This is an agreement made with much attention and much respect for those who would later be the object of this” operation, he stressed.

I believe it's normal that there are different opinions, it's normal that there are skeptics, it's normal that there are those who make noises against anything, because otherwise we won't be in democracy. But the point of this agreement that makes me feel bad is that it is an agreement made as it is among the EU states. So, just because Albania is not a state of the EU, would it make this deal an agreement to open a Guantanamoje? What does that mean? First of all, talking about Guantanamon and talking about concentration camps really offends the memories of those who passed through Guantanamo and concentration camps. We should have a little more sensitivity to those words because being the prime minister of Albania, born in a country as a concentration camp, born in an isolated country that was a Guantanamo in the middle of Europe, I honestly think that. That's a little too much. Even because these host centres are everywhere, they are in Greece, which is a country of the EU and I don't believe that anyone has sounded the alarm concentration camps in Greece. There are other places. Maybe they're not the best, they're not hotels on the beach. I understand very well, but in any case they're not facts and we don't want to do something that doesn't respect the dignity of these people”, Rama followed.

” Instead, precisely because we want to respect the dignity of these people, we were very careful, very careful with numbers and modalities. And then there was a group of Italian and Albanian experts who worked for the agreement from all angles and also from the perspective of international law”, he stressed.

Commenting is no sin in itself. A person can sin by commenting badly. Actually, I respect everyone and I don't want to get into any kind of debate because, as I said before, different opinions on this subject are sacred because unfortunately there are no convincing and common answers. There are European countries, for example, from the EU, that have not been hiding and publicly say that we do not want black immigrants or Muslims. They say that. But then these countries were fantastic at the gathering of millions of Ukrainians, since they were white, they were Christians”, Prime Minister Rama followed.

And even if there's a real sense of concern, because ultimately everyone who comes to Europe and takes the ship and whoever appears there in despair deserves respect, deserves to be welcomed, treated well, even identified as a man, not as black or white, red or green... Then there are states in the European Union, and I take the example of Sweden, which has adopted a completely different policy, open arms for all without discrimination, a policy based on pure principles and values, say ideal Europe”, he added.

But unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the right answer either. We're in the middle of Europe, so start with this, we're in the middle of Europe, we're separated from a beautiful sea with Italy. We are not an EU state, we are a European state, and no one can remove this. So, we want to be part of the European Union, of course it has been our dream since we first saved from the hell of the communist dictatorship in Albania”, he added.

The fact that this agreement is said to be made for a reward is when it sees that the reward is not money, because Albania has asked for no freedom, not any more euros, for the operation. Albania did not ask for any favors or benefits, it simply had the honour of being present when Italy asked him to give a hand. So, how many times has Italy helped us? What Italy gained and what he asked for in return when he welcomed us with open arms, and we were present today at Lampeduza. We were the Eritreas, we were Africans. Even though we were in the middle of Europe, we aliens, arriving there by ship”, Rama followed.

Nothing, it didn't ask for anything, it didn't want anything in return, but let's go to the next one, what Italy asked us to do when he arrived in Albania with the army, with the volunteers, as Albania came out of communism on its really dramatic path towards building a new and democratic country. You remember the financial pyramid that led Albania to the brink of a civil war, because everyone lost their savings. Italy saved us, Italy, was there, and it did not require a reward. What reward did the field call for when our people arrived under the ruins of the terrible earthquake? They came from Italy, risked their lives to save our lives. They asked no wages, did their jobs, and left. And then one day, which is not a day anything, it's not like every day, it's not even every two years that Italy says we have this problem. Can you help us? We know we're too small to be the solution, but we still have to give a hand, right? Yes, of course, we honor ourselves and honor this deep friendship with Italy”, Rama stressed in this interview.

And then when we see that there is nothing of this, Rama says that Rama opened the door to Melon Africans to get into Europe faster. But, I'm sorry, those who say this don't even know how to knock in Europe, not how to get in anymore. But they can't even knock. Entering the European Union is a completely different path from this imagination. You can't enter the European Union like it's a church, like taking someone on the street and telling the priest, can you bring him back to be a sinner, but he's a good guy? No, it enters the EU by making reforms, homework, which are really very necessary, and there is a European Commission that estimates, which does all monitoring tasks, public administration, reform in justice, fighting corruption. It has nothing to do with it, but unfortunately in a world where only interest is worth and where only money is worth, no one can imagine that an agreement can be made without interest or money, but only to honor us and honor this relationship”, he stressed.

I have to say that if Italy is the left that it has... let's say it's a little offline for a while, and I hope this is a closed problem, because then that exception has resulted in what they think is wrong. No, no, then I think maybe it's not the left-hand side to help Italy in this way and it's saying okay, we welcome us immigrants, neither the right-wing people in Albania, because in Albania it's the right one telling us the same things. So it has nothing to do with either the left or the right, maybe that's just right. We'll see”, explain Rama.

” Thank you very much and smile more because you live in the world's most beautiful place after Albania”, Rama concluded, in an interview by Paris for the”Dritto show of Rovescio” on Italian television, Rete4, regarding the agreement signed with his Italian counterpart, Giorgia Melon for setting up the waiting centre for migrants in Strygin.