Outsourcing Asylum: The Italy-Albania Protocol and the Future of EU Migration Governance Under the New Pact

The Migration and Asylum Pact is set to be enforced in June 2026. This thesis aims to analyse the future of externalised asylum processing in Europe once the Pact is enforced. It assesses the future legal and political implications of agreements like the Italy-Albania Protocol within the broader EU framework. The thesis is set to argue how the Italy-Albania case is set to influence such future agreements where other EU member states might take up this transactional migration governance model. I would also like to argue whether the New Pact would facilitate such agreements in the future by lowering standards to declare a third country as “safe”.The comparative analysis of the 2016 EU-Turkey Statement and the Italy-Albania Protocol would argue whether such externalisation policies provide sustainable solutions to migration management or add to the plight of migrants or asylum seekers by containing them outside European Union territory. The research also sheds light on whether the language contained in the New Pact allows for similar agreements in the future as it contains provisions like pre-entry screenings, financing returns, and lowering standards for declaring a third country ‘safe’. It is to my understanding that such models of externalisation of migration control could exacerbate humanitarian crises as it leads to dehumanisation and commodification of the migrants.