TIRANA, Aug. 20 – More than 770 Albanian citizens are scheduled to be flown back from Germany either because they volunteered to withdraw their asylum claims or because the claims were rejected by authorities.
A total of 11 charter flights back will take place in August and September, German officials said in a statement, which also noted a list of dates for the repatriation flights to Albania and other countries of the region.
The flights are part of efforts by German authorities to speed up the deportation of asylum seekers from the region, which is seen by Germany as a source of economic migrants filing bogus asylum claims.
German officials also refuted Tuesday claims by some Albanians who had been recently deported to Albania that they were not told they were being flown back until they had arrived at the airport.
“In the last couple of days the Albanian media have reported that some Albanian asylum-seekers recently deported to their homeland have claimed upon their return to Rinas airport that German relevant authorities had not notified them of their return flight, instead they were told they would be flown to another center inside Germany,” the press release noted. “This is a false claim … The persons who are subject to return or deportation from Germany in the light of asylum-seeking procedures, are informed on the measures in accordance with all the principles of the rule of law through the police and with the assistance of translators.”
Only in the first half of this year about 65,000 migrants from four countries: Albania, Serbia, Kosovo and Macedonia of which a thirds are from Albania, while in July, had almost 6,000 immigrants from Albania. They are part of some 1,400 refugees also from Kosovo, Macedonia and Serbia who have applied for asylum in Germany.
“There is no doubt in Germany that migrants from the Western Balkans are economic migrants, and there is absolutely no chance for economic migrants to get asylum,” German Ambassador Hellmut Hoffmann said in a recent interview with Vizion Plus television.
Upon their forced return, the would-be migrants are barred from traveling to Germany for many years.
Germany is the center of attention and the main target of thousands of refugees who flee wars and poverty back home. Germany may have as many as 750,000 refugees this year and tens of thousands of them are from the Balkans.
Germany sees Albania Albania and other Western Balkans countries as poor but safe, unlike the war-torn Middle Eastern and African countries, from where refugees have a higher chance of obtaining asylum.
Albanian authorities have strengthened their checking at the border crossing points and also countrywide calling on the people not to try such an effort as they will be turned back.
