The number of Albanians who request asylum in western countries is
increasing. The Ombudsman is preparing a report with data gathered from
our embassies in these countries.
“We have noted in the past two years, in 2012 and 2013, that there has been a progressive growth of the number of Albanian asylum seekers in the main western countries. We have received data from some western countries, and there is a growing trend. Countries like Serbia, Macedonia and Bosnia keep being more problematic than Albania, but we are concerned that this is happening especially now that the European Parliament has approved the mechanism that suspends the visa free regime for problematic countries”, the Ombudsman declared.
The biggest number of asylum seekers has been recorded in France, where there have been 2331 cases only for 2013, while during 2012 there have been 2699 cases. Then comes Germany, Sweden and Switzerland. The Ombudsman explains that the main reasons are related with the main problems of the society.
“The main reasons are related to the lack of human rights, such as domestic violence, which is a main reason especially against women. The biggest problem is blood feud. Many have requested political asylum because of blood feud, human traffic, discrimination and other health or economic problems”, Totozani declared.
According to Totozani, another problem is the fact that unaccompanied minors are sent by minors to profit from their applications. The ombudsman says that the increased number of assylum seekers should be seen carefully by our state institutions, since the mechanism approved recently by the European Parliament makes Albania one of the countries for which the visa regime might return.
Top Channel
