Refugee, Asylum Meloni-themed restaurant opens next to asylum camp in Albania

According to a report, an admirer of Italian head of government Giorgia Meloni has opened the "Trattoria Meloni" in Albania. It is located just a few steps away from Meloni's pet project, a reception center for asylum seekers.

In the restaurant in the northern Albanian port city of Shengjin, visitors can order fish or seafood surrounded by 70 painted portraits of Meloni. "When cuisine, art and politics come together, wonderful things can be created," says owner Gjergj Luca to the AFP news agency.

The 58-year-old is the son of a well-known Albanian actor and used to be a mime himself. He is fascinated by Meloni's "extraordinary" personality, he says. He hopes that she will visit his restaurant soon. He had the portraits of the leader of the ultra-right Fratelli d'Italia party, sometimes smiling, sometimes angry, created by the well-known Albanian artist Heliton Haliti.

Meloni is a "very interesting, strong" personality, said Haliti - "even if her political convictions are not mine". In the structurally weak region, the two reception camps, which are due to open in the coming weeks, are welcome as places of work.

Women and children to Italy, men to Albania

Migrants are to be held in the fully fenced camps set up by Italy while the Italian authorities decide on their asylum applications. Meloni agreed this with her Albanian colleague Edi Rama in November last year.

Migrants rescued from the Mediterranean by the Italian coastguard are to be divided up: Women and children are to be taken to Italy, up to 3,000 men to the camps in Albania. The human rights organization Amnesty International denounced the "automatic and possibly prolonged detention" of the refugees.

SDA