Europe warns: No more asylum seekers

TIRANA, Nov. 23 – EU Ambassador to Tirana Ettore Sequi on Wednesday warned Albanians there should be no more asylum requests in EU Schengen member countries or the bloc may be obliged to cancel the visa waiver.
Last month the same warning was made by a Belgian senior official who traveled to Albania to ask its government to crack down on people filing false asylum claims in Belgium.
Speaking at a ceremony in capital Tirana Sequi called on the Albanian authorities and citizens to respect obligations deriving from process of visa liberalization with EU countries.
EU officials consider the increased number of asylum seekers from Albania and other regional countries as a “crisis of asylum seeking” as many of them who have made the request live in open spaces while their asylum applications are evaluated.
“The number of asylum seekers from the region in EU countries has considerably increased, and the situation is being monitored and the figures will be presented to Council of Europe at the December meeting, which will take a final decision,” said Sequi.
He added that while there is no exact figure of citizens demanding asylum, many citizens from Western Balkans countries have violated the visa liberalization rules.
Slovenian European parliamentarian Tanja Fayon also called on Albanians to respect the rules or the case may be exploited politically in some countries and that would negatively affect all the Albanians. She said there is pressure from some lawmakers from different countries, usually those in the Benelux area, to punish those countries for such violations of their rules. Fayon said they are working hard to cope with that, adding she does not believe the visa liberalization may be cancelled within a night.
In late 2010, the European Union ended visa requirements for Albania, one of Europe’s poorest countries. That led some analysts to predict this would motivate many Albanians to seek asylum or illegal work in richer EU countries.
There has been noted a sudden increase of Albanians’ asylum requests since August despite the fact that all of them were rejected as false claims.
In some applicants claimed that feuds with other families could lead to them being killed.
Albanian authorities have also undertaken some steps like suing some representatives of non-governmental organizations and also of the local authorities in northwestern part of the country for giving false documentation on the alleged vendetta cases.
Besides in a recent move all Albanians need first to take a clearance from police before applying for a biometric passport. The Interior Ministry broadcasts daily an advertisement calling on the people to respect the Schengen rules.
Sequi’s warning was the last in their series coming from Europe.
In December it is up to the European Commission to decide whether Albania and the other Balkan countries may still enjoy the visa waiver.