From Italy to Albania: a migrant’s journey through Italy’s asylum experiment 

Shëngjin (Albania) – As Nizam sped toward Italy on a crowded migrant boat, he filmed what he believed was the final stretch of his harrowing journey. The 21-year-old house painter from Bangladesh held up his phone, framing his face before panning to the roughly 50 others packed onto the white fiberglass vessel. Behind him, a man covered his eyes with his hands, seemingly in tears, while another passenger, smiling, patted him on the back. The boat’s stern sat low as it cut through the twinkling Mediterranean.

Later, Nizam* posted the clip on TikTok, providing an account of his ill-fated crossing. "Let's go, our time has come. Don't worry, we'll be back together," says a voiceover in Urdu.

But days later, instead of stepping onto Italian soil to chase the future he had long imagined, Nizam found himself behind the fences of Italy’s controversial migrant camps in Albania – facilities embroiled in legal battles since their controversial launch in the autumn 2024. Back home in a small village in Bangladesh’s Madaripur district, Nizam’s parents anxiously awaited news. 

His mother and one of his three sisters had taught him to read, but instead of going to school, Nizam worked to support the family. On social media, he crafted a playboy image, posting videos of himself perched on borrowed superbikes, sunglasses on, a stylishly cropped flop of hair completing the look. But his reality was far from glamorous. With his elderly father unable to work, Nizam was the only breadwinner in the family. “Our family is very poor,” he later said. “I have to work.” 

Desperate, his parents scraped together money to pay a trafficker well known in the village. They sold a small piece of land and plunged into debt. Smuggled first to India, then Sri Lanka, Kuwait and Egypt, Nizam eventually arrived in Libya – first Benghazi, then Tripoli – where he fell into the clutches of the mafia. They seized his passport and imprisoned him for three days, torturing him while filming the abuse. The videos were sent to his family as ransom demands.

Nizam was released after his parents paid part of the ransom. "One night, they took me to a beach and forced me onto a boat," he recalled. The boat set off for Italy from the Libyan port of Zuara.

Nizam was unable to swim, and the vessel was so overcrowded he was certain he would die. Yet as the boat approached Lampedusa's coastline, he clung to the hope that the worst was behind him.

His journey took an unexpected turn. More than 300 migrants who departed from Libyan ports in late January were intercepted by Italian authorities. Nizam was among them. He was transferred to a naval vessel stationed 20 miles off Lampedusa and screened for health conditions, age and nationality. 

Forty-nine, including Nizam, were told they would be sent to migrant camps in Albania. A group of Egyptian migrants reportedly went on a hunger strike.

“It was a moment of desolation, very emotionally taxing,” said Cipriana Contu, a lawyer who later spoke with one of the Egyptian migrants. “He said when they learned they would be sent to Albania, they went on hunger strike, and some burst into tears.”