Suspected trafficking scam turns back hundreds of students

TIRANA, May 11 – Two persons were arrested and four others charged but set free for allegedly organizing a trafficking scam involving many immigrants-to-be among scores of students on a trip to neighboring Italy.
Some 170 Albanian students were turned back from the port of Trieste to Durres without being able to leave the ferry after the Hungarian embassy ordered Italian authorities to stop them from entering the country due to irregularities in their documentation.
The students spent four days in the port city of Trieste because of visa problems. They were supposed to continue their trip to other countries.
The Hungarian Embassy in Tirana declared their Schengen visas invalid only days after it had issued them. Investigators said this may have been a human trafficking scheme, as only 87 of the students were enrolled in universities.
Police arrested Iris Cekani of a tourist agency and Valter Marashi, a student, after they were charged of illegally taking 167 Schenghen visas at the Hungarian embassy.
Upon arriving in Durres students said they had heard other people had paid up to 3,500 Euros each for getting a visa, thus being able to go to a Western European country.