An investigation into a migration deal between Italy and Albania has won the European Parliament’s 2026 Daphne Caruana Galizia Prize for Journalism.
The winning story was written by Giacomo Zandonini, from Italy, and Maite Vermeulen, from the Netherlands, and published by Dutch journalism platform "De Correspondent," the European Parliament announced on Wednesday night.
It focuses on an arrangement under which Italy built a detention facility and asylum processing centre on Albanian territory.
The prize was presented at a ceremony in the European Parliament in Strasbourg by a representative of an independent jury made up of journalists from all 27 EU member states.
European Parliament President Roberta Metsola and Vice-President Pina Picierno, who is responsible for the prize, attended the event in the Parliament’s Daphne Caruana Galizia Press Room.
Metsola said the Parliament would “continue to stand with journalists, defend press freedom and fight for justice.”
What the investigation found
Zandonini and Vermeulen spent 18 months investigating the deal, according to the European Parliament.
The investigation said the agreement was intended to intercept migrants travelling to Italy and bring them to Albania — a country outside the EU — where they were rejected through an expedited asylum process and deported to their home countries.
The journalists filed more than 30 Freedom of Information requests across six European countries, as well as to the European Commission, the Council and EU border agency Frontex, and also interviewed staff in the centres, migrants in detention, lawyers, MPs, government representatives and local residents in Albania.
The authors said they were denied access to the Italian-run centres in Albania and that basic information, including the number of people detained, was not disclosed.
Hundreds of journalists from the 27 EU countries submitted stories for the prize between 4 May and 31 July 2026, with 344 submissions in total and 10 shortlisted before the winner was chosen.
The Daphne Caruana Galizia Prize is named after the Maltese investigative journalist who was killed by a car bomb on 16 October 2017, and the award includes €20,000 in prize money.
