TIRANA, Jan. 22 – According to the Greek Asylum Service, 3053 Albanian nationals lodged asylum applications in 2019. Based on data provided by these authorities, Albanian citizens rank fifth in regard to the number of lodged applications in Greece after Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq. The number of Albanian asylum seekers in Greece remained high during 2019, but applications during this year will be rejected after Albania was included in the list of safe countries of origin by the Greek authorities.
However, Albanians rank 12th in terms of asylum recognition rate, as only 0.2 percent of the total number of applications are accepted. Further data shows that Albanian citizens filed 2135 complaints in 2019 over rejections of their applications by Greek authorities, with some of the cases still pending.
Data published by the Greek Center for Asylum indicate that year after year the number of Albanian asylum seekers has increased in Greece. In 2013 there were only 419 asylum applications, while in 2018 that number increased significantly to 3319. Earlier this year, the Greek government included Albania on the list of 12 Safe Countries of Origin, on the basis of European Commission guidelines, along with countries such as Georgia, Ukraine, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and more.
