Author Identifier (ORCID)
Abstract
In November 2023, Italy signed a five-year agreement with Albania to transfer asylum seekers intercepted in international waters by Italian vessels to Italian-run detention centres in Albania for asylum processing and deportation. The agreement has been controversial and raises several human rights issues. This article examines these human rights concerns and argues that the agreement is degrading by design. Analysing policy documents, legal cases, speeches, international human rights and refugee law, and philosophical and legal scholarship on the concept of degrading treatment, this article argues that the cumulative effect of subjecting people to unnecessary suffering, discrimination, and dehumanisation creates a structural risk of degrading human dignity that brings asylum seekers down in rank. This article makes an important contribution to the policy debates over the externalisation of asylum seekers in Europe by shedding light on the link between policy designs and the risk of degrading treatment.
Keywords
Albania, asylum seekers, degrading treatment, Italy, rank
Document Type
Journal Article
Date of Publication
9-1-2026
Article Number
e70217
E-ISSN
14682435
ISSN
00207985
Volume
64
Issue
5
Publication Title
International Migration
Publisher
Wiley
School
School of Arts and Humanities
RAS ID
102290
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Barnes, J., & Adonteng‐Kissi, O. (2026). Rank, degrading treatment, and the Italy‐Albania Agreement. International Migration, 64(5), e70217. https://doi.org/10.1111/imig.70217