TIRANA, May 30 – Two Albanian citizens were arrested in Fier on Wednesday for attempting to smuggle seven Syrian refugees that had reportedly illegally entered the country across the border.
25-year old Mikel Hoxha and 22-year old Xhuljan Bullari, coming from Tirana, were transporting four and three syrians in their separate cars, until they were pulled over by the police in two different Fier neighborhoods.
Authorities reported they passed over the case to Fier’s First Instance Court, which will judge the Albanians for “assisting illegal border trespassing.”
As the number of Syrian refugees looking to pass over to Europe through Albania, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina is growing bigger, a Montenegrin government representative said last week Montenegro is looking into the possibility of building a migrant fence on the Albania-Montenegro border.
As smugglers have been increasingly using the corridor passing through Albania, Montenegro and Bosnia for refugees to reach Croatia, a European Union member state, so has each respective government’s capacity to deal with their needs accordingly worsened.
