TIRANA, June 1 – An international human rights group criticized Albanian authorities for allowing 15 orphans to remain homeless, a dangerous situation that may turn them into targets for trafficking and sexual exploitation.
Amnesty International said that 15 people, who were orphaned as children, the majority of them women in their twenties and thirties, may find themselves homeless as of today (May 31) in the town of Kor衠in south-east Albania.
A similar threat reportedly hangs over some 40 other adults who were orphaned children in Shkodra in northern Albania.
If these evictions take place, without ensuring alternative accommodation to those affected, Albania will breach its obligations under international and regional human rights law, Amnesty International said.
The group said that those living in the student residential hall in Kor衠had relied throughout their lives on institutional care as they lack family support, and as a result of the planned evictions they risk being left on the street.
The local authorities, who are renovating the building for use by students at the school, have not taken steps to secure alternative housing.
The 15 people have lived in a part of this residential hall, in six rooms, for over 10 years. As they were not allocated housing after finishing school, they stayed on in two floors of the building, which is reportedly in serious disrepair, but in fact is their only home.
They are reportedly unemployed or work as dressmakers, and unable to afford the rent for housing on the open market.
Since 1996, 11 others have gone missing who were orphaned as children (nine young women and two young men), also once lived in this hall.
Reports indicate that some may have been trafficked for exploitation as prostitutes or have been recruited for criminal activity.
“Orphans are extremely vulnerable; they lack the support of family, which for most Albanians is their main or only safety net in times of trouble,” said Nicola Duckworth, Director of Amnesty International’s Europe and Central Asia Programme.
“Amnesty International deplores the failure on the part of the Albanian authorities to respect and implement their obligations towards orphaned children. In implementing the evictions, the Albanian authorities would be effectively washing their hands of those most in need of their protection.”
The right to adequate housing is guaranteed in international law, under Article 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, ratified by Albania.
Amnesty International calls on the Kor衠municipal authorities not to proceed with the threatened eviction, until such time as it can provide those affected with adequate alternative housing.
The organization further urges the central and local authorities, and their international partners, to ensure that the state’s legal obligations to all orphans are implemented, and to take targeted and effective steps, as a matter of priority to ensure the right to adequate housing for adults who were orphaned children.
According to associations representing Albanian orphans, there are over 300 people who were orphaned as children, mostly aged between 20 and 40 years, living in similarly squalid conditions in dilapidated sections of residential halls in Albanian cities.
“With few qualifications, often unemployed or living from hand to mouth by casual labor, adults who were orphaned as children are likely to become demoralized, marginalized and isolated from the rest of society in these ‘orphan ghettoes’,” Nicola Duckworth said.
“These disadvantages, combined with the social stigma of being an orphan, can often undermine their right to family life and their ability to create warm and stable homes for themselves and their own children.”
Amnesty International is keenly aware that Albania does not have unlimited resources, and there is a severe shortage of social or low-cost housing across the country, it said.
Those who were orphaned as children should not, however, simply be abandoned at the age of 18 and rendered homeless.
