EU Parliament denied access to Italian detention facility in Albania, exposing monitoring blind spot

MEPs from the Greens/EFA Group were barred from inspecting cells and accessing operational data at Italy's Gjadër facility in Albania on June 29, 2026. The centre processes asylum seekers under an Italy-Albania bilateral agreement designed to sidestep EU asylum procedures. The obstruction reveals a structural problem: extraterritorial detention sits beyond standard EU oversight yet remains tied to member-state obligations, creating an accountability vacuum that undermines the legitimacy of offshore processing models.