TIRANA, Feb.24 – Amnesty International released its annual report which assesses the situation of human rights in 160 countries worldwide, including Albania.
The report highlights the denial of adequate housing for the Roma and Egyptian communities, the grim economic reality which has sparked a mass exodus of Albanians towards EU countries and the lack of protection against domestic violence as the three main areas of concern in Albania.
The human rights watchdog says that many Roma families were unable to legalize their homes under a 2014 law on the legalization of illegal constructions.
The report brings the case of 70 Roma families whose houses were demolished last year in the outskirts of Tirana after they were forcefully evicted.
Violence towards women and girls in Albania is also problematic, according to Amnesty International.
The AI report states that despite a large number of requests for civil protection orders, only a small number were granted and that victims often withdraw their application due to pressure or intimidation.
The culture of impunity in the country constituted another area of concern for the human rights organization.
“In June the prosecutor found that the failure of former State Police director Hysni Burgaj and his deputy Agron Kulià§aj to execute arrest warrants for members of the Republic Guard, who were alleged to have shot and killed four protesters in an anti-government demonstration in January 2011, was not a criminal offence. Despite convictions for the deaths of three protesters, impunity persisted in the case of the fourth, Aleks Nika,” the report states.
Another problem in Albania, evidenced by Amnesty International, is the dire economic situation which has pushed several thousand Albanians to apply for asylum in the EU. Also ill-treatment of detainees by police and prison overcrowding were other human rights violations contained in the report. In its annual assessment of human rights around the world, the organization notices a deterioration of basic freedoms worldwide as a result of short-term national interests and draconian security crackdowns.
