TIRANA, Oct. 11 – Efforts by the European Union and others to cope with the influx of the refugees into Europe from war-torn Syria and other countries.
Albania’s foreign minister and deputy interior minister took part at the international meeting held in Luxembourg to deal with the from the EU on the refugee crisis.
They said the western Balkan countries could find it very hard to cope with an increase of the number of refugees arriving on their land which could be used as a transit point.
Albanian authorities have noted that taking into consideration all possibilities, Tirana has prepared an emergency plan and prepared its affordable sheltering capacities.
In fact, the refugees that have until now made it Albania, have used the country only as a place of transit to western European countries, mainly Germany and Austria.
Reminding everyone of the 1999 refugee crisis from Kosovo, when Albania was the main country to shelter them, the Albanian foreign minister said the refugee crisis should be dealt with in a joint way by all European countries.
Prime Minister Edi Rama also criticized Europe this week for not handling the refugee crisis properly. He said the continent does not have a clear and joint European strategy on the refugees and also on the source they are coming from, Syria.
Rama made the comments during a visit to Prague on Tuesday.
Albania also has its domestic migrants to contend with. In an interview with Euronews, Interior Minister Saimir Tahiri backed the German government’s efforts to tighten asylum legislation and to send back economic migrants from Albania.
He also urged Germany to speed up decision-making procedures regarding asylum seekers.
Germany has now declared Albania a safe country, which means its citizens can no more claim asylum there.
Berlin says asylum seekers from the Western Balkans are not genuine, but rather economic migrants, and they clog up the system for refugees from war-torn countries.
