Clandestini Bound for Greece Stopped

GJIROKASTRA, Oct. 4 – Wednesday police in southern Gjirokastra stopped a minivan with 13 people on board who were trying to illegally cross the border into Greece. Ylli Shane, 38, was the driver of the minivan transporting the illegal immigrants, three of whom were children, toward the Kakavie border crossing point. After questioning the immigrants-to-be said they had each paid 1,300-1,500 euro to cross the border into Greece. The immigrants came mainly from central Albania and they were released after questioning by the police. The minivan driver was placed under arrest for trafficking. Police said they were investigating and attempting to find other collaborators with the driver.
In a separate event in the southernmost port town of Saranda police questioned 11 illegal immigrants sent back from Greece. They had tried to cross into Italy after illegally crossing the Greek border. They had received false visas in the Greek town of Igumenitsa for which they had paid 1000-2000 euro each.
In western Durres police arrested two people for human trafficking. One of them was an immigrant in Italy and the other lived in Durres. They were accused of organizing eight people from Rrushkull to illegally go into Italy with speedboats.
Monday police at Mother Teresa international airport stopped six people aged 18-25 years old trying to leave the country with false passports. They said they had paid 3,000-3,500 euro each to secure them.
Recently in Albania there has been a noticeable increase in the efforts by individuals to illegally cross the border toward neighboring Greece or Italy with speedboats. Albanian, Italian or Greek police have arrested dozens of persons coming from Albania. They have also found drugs, mainly marijuana. The government has put fighting illegal human and drug trafficking as a top priority in its program. The international community has openly told Albania it should fight trafficking before asking for full membership into NATO and the European Union.