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According to a study published by Monitor magazine on Monday, the asylum applications from Albania are the highest compared to Balkan and European countries, the Voice of America in the Albanian language reports.
The study found a significant increase in the asylum claims of Albanians in European Union countries, starting in June, when quarantine ended, although they are not allowed to travel to the EU during the pandemic.
The editor-in-chief of Monitor magazine, Ornela Liperi, says that Albania holds the record numbers for asylum applications in the Balkans and in Europe and has figures comparable only to Georgia.
"What is more worrying is that if we compare with other countries around the world in terms of population, even during June Albania is second in terms of applications in terms of population. In June we had 142 applications per 1 million inhabitants; which puts us second in the world after Syria. In relation to the population, Albanians want to leave their country even more than those in Afghanistan, Colombia, Venezuela, which were the countries with the most asylum applications in the European Union in absolute value"- says Ms. Liperi, editor-in-chief of Monitor magazine.
Ms. Liperi says that the figures are worrying because of the fact that unlike Syria as a country in conflict, Albania is a country involved in the process of integration with the European Union, so it has the highest rate of asylum rejection by many countries.
Another problem is the high number of asylum re-applications; 20 percent of asylum applications have been submitted for the second time, which shows the determination of Albanian applicants to leave the country, she says.
Another study, conducted by World Vision with emigrants returning to Albania from different countries, showed that most of them are looking for work, few find it, are self-employed in small workshops or food, agriculture or livestock, but about 60 percent of returned emigrants plan to re-emigrate again.
"Living for returnees in Albania is not easy and they need to coordinate the efforts of all regional and national actors to create professional training and employment opportunities for them. It should be borne in mind that 59.7 percent of returned Albanians plan to emigrate. This increases the responsibility of state authorities as well as civil society to create training and employment opportunities for returnees, said Artina Morava, program director at World Vision.
Nearly 98 percent of returned migrants seek work, half of them seek employment through employment offices, but the main obstacle remains low vocational training and low education, but even with this level of education and training, they think they live and are better paid better in western countries than in their homeland.
In May, Albania had 90 asylum applications, there were 394 applications, ie more than quadrupling the figures, of which three quarters for the first time and the rest are re-applications.
In January and February, when travel was normal, there were on average more than 1,000 applications per month for asylum from Albanians in one of the European Union countries, while in June, applications reached almost 40% of the pre-crisis level.
In the first six months of 2020, about 3,400 Albanians applied for asylum. According to a Balkan ranking for June, Albania ranks first in asylum applications with 394 applications, followed by Kosovo citizens with less than half of Albania with 185 asylum applications, followed by Serbia with 134, Bosnia with 97, Macedonia with 44 and Montenegro is at the bottom with only 10 asylum applications in European Union countries.