Albania protests murder of Albanian illegal migrant

TIRANA, Nov – The Albanian Foreign Ministry expressed anger as it protested the murder of an Albanian immigrants by Greek border guards and asked Athens to take proper measures and to prosecute the guards.
The ministry complained about the repeated cases in which Albanian citizens have become objects of maltreatment from “members of Greek law enforcement that have been accompanied with fatal consequences, such as this last one,” according to a ministry statement.
The ministry said Albanian citizens have become victims of abuse or overstepping of authority by the Greek authorities.
Tirana said that to avoid a repeat of such events in the future it was imperative to have greater cooperation in order to “uproot prejudgment and racist inspirations that negatively affect the image of the Albanian community in Greece and the traditionally good ties between our two countries and people,” said the statement.
A Greek border guard shot and killed a migrant trying to cross illegally into northwestern Greece last week while Athens authorities pledged a full investigation into claims of police brutality and torture of illegal immigrants and exemplary punishment if proved true.
The victim, who had entered the country and tried to run from officers who ordered him to stop, had crossed either from Macedonia or Albania with a group of ten other migrants, police said.
Police said the border guards had asked them to stop for routine checks. Two of the migrants ran away, one of them was arrested while the other was shot and seriously injured by a border guard. He died in hospital shortly after.
The Greek guard has since been arrested.