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The Libra arrived at the port of Shengjin, northern Albania, with six Egyptian nationals and two people from Bangladesh, the interior ministry told AFP.
This came after Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government passed a new law to overcome legal opposition to the scheme.
The 2023 deal calls for migrants intercepted by state vessels within Italy’s search and rescue area to be taken to Albania. It excludes those considered vulnerable by law, including women and minors.
To be eligible for the two Italian-run centres in Albania, migrants must hail from so-called “safe countries”.
The centres in Albania are meant to be operated under Italian law, with Italian security and staff, and judges hearing cases by video link from Rome.
Meloni said on Friday that EU countries have expressed “extraordinary interest” in the plan, but the government now needs an Italian court to sign off on the detention of the eight migrants in Albania.
The first attempt last month to detain 12 migrants from Bangladesh and Egypt in Albania was swiftly rejected by judges in Rome on the grounds that their countries of origin couldn’t be considered “safe for repatriation”.
The judges pointed to a recent European Court of Justice ruling that stated that EU states can only designate entire countries as safe, not parts of countries.
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In response, Rome passed a law stating that all parts of the 19 countries on its list were “safe”.
But that has also been opposed by Italian judges, who have refused to sign off on detention orders and asked the European Court of Justice to clarify existing laws.
On Friday, Meloni warned that “the risk is a situation where safe countries do not exist…which would make it impossible to manage immigration and stop mass illegal immigration”.