TIRANA – Police in the southern city of Gjirokastra detained this week 20 foreign nationals for illegally entering Albania via the Greek land border.
The majority of the detainees were from Morocco, whereas the other two were Palestinians, according to local police sources.
After being interviewed at the nearby border-crossing point of Kakavija, Albania’s largest border crossing with Greece, it emerged that the immigrants intended to cross into Montenegro with their final destination being Germany.
Last month Albanian authorities at Kakavija said they detained another small group of Moroccans who planned to follow the same route via Montenegro to arrive in Germany.
With Serbian and Macedonian authorities allowing travel northwards only for refugees fleeing war such as those from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, other nationalities are increasingly seeking alternative routes with their final destination being the rich countries of northern Europe.
Albanian authorities have long feared that with the coming of winter, refugees would choose Albania as a transit point, and for this purpose two military bases near Gjirokastra and Korca have been set up as potential hosting centers for the refugees.
However, the dreaded arrival of refugees on the same scale seen in Macedonia and Serbia has failed to materialize with arrivals of immigrants being sporadic and in contained numbers.
