Barnier says Albania migrant processing deal can't be 'transposed' to France

France’s Prime Minister Michel Barnier has said he doesn’t think the deal Italy has made with Albania to send asylum seekers there for processing will work in France.

"I don’t think this example can be transposed (to France)," Barnier told reporters in Menton, a French town near the border with Italy.

Barnier also said that the Albania deal wouldn't work in France because of legal reasons.

Last week, Italy formally opened two return hub centres in Albania under Rome's jurisdiction, where it plans to process thousands of asylum-seekers outside its borders.

Only adult men would be housed in the centres, while vulnerable people such as women, children, the elderly and those who are ill or victims of torture will be accommodated in Italy, according to Rome. Families will not be separated.

The first centre, an area in Shengjin, 66 kilometres northwest of the capital, Tirana, is used for screening newcomers, while the other centre, about 22 kilometres to its east near the former military airport in Gjader, accommodates migrants during the processing of their asylum requests.

Up to 3,000 migrants picked up by the Italian coast guard in international waters each month will be sheltered in Albania under a five-year deal signed last November by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her Albanian counterpart, Edi Rama.

The controversial agreement to outsource the housing of asylum seekers to a non-EU member country has been hailed by some countries that, like Italy, are suffering a heavy burden of refugees, but it has also been slammed by human rights groups as setting a dangerous precedent.

And the plan was dealt a further blow on Friday after a court in Rome ruled that 16 migrants who had been sent to Albania earlier this week had the