The Visa Wall

By Maklen Misha
There are few issues Albanians care more about than freedom of movement. A number of surveys have shown that this is the main benefit they would expect from membership in the European Union and that all social classes and groups deem this to be an issue of the outmost importance. And yet 17 years after the end of the five decade long self-isolation, imposed by a xenophobic Communist regime, Albanians find themselves victims of another type of isolation this time imposed on them by the outside world and especially the EU countries. Because although the EU is tantalizingly close geographically, it is easier for Albanians to travel to Costa Rica, Malaysia or a number of countries at the other end of the world than for instance to Greece or Italy.
The problem is that in order to be able to travel or work in EU countries Albanians need visas and getting a visa is still one of the hardest, most humiliating and impossible experiences one can imagine in one’s lifetime. The list of documents required is endless and although the consular staff is probably not aware of it – or worse does not care – obtaining the multitude of certificates and stamps that one needs just to be able to apply for a visa is an exhausting ordeal that can take weeks. Then there are the long queues at the embassies, most of which appear to do their best to make it as uncomfortable as possible for the applicants, probably in an effort to discourage them from applying in the first place, and then there are the forbidding prices that at times amount to half a monthly salary for the average citizen of this country. As if these were not enough, more often than not once the applicant’s turn comes, he or she is faced with a very rude and arrogant reception and chances are that all the effort, work and money that went into procuring the documents needed will have been in vain anyway, because most people are never granted visas. (Not too long ago the Albanian Under 17 weightlifting team was not able to attend an international championship because they were not issued visas.) The experience can often leave one very disoriented and frustrated indeed.
But Albanians, as most people in the Western Balkans, who do not want to migrate or travel simply because, as St. Augustine said, “the world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page”, but also because they need jobs and opportunities that Albania just cannot offer, are nothing if not persistent and inventive. And since where there is a demand there is a supply, this situation provides the ideal breeding ground for all sorts of individuals and criminal groups that offer ‘alternative’ means of travel. These range from fake visas and passports, to speedboats, trucks, ferries and what not. Only a short time ago the Albanian police managed to roll up one such group with the very appropriate name ‘Go West’ that provided services of this kind for huge sums of money. Tragically the attempts to cross into the EU – mainly Italy and Greece – illegally have often had tragic results. Everyone remembers how often the Italian Coast Guard had to save people from drowning; and how often it failed to do so. The cost in lives was enormous, and to make matters even worse the channels established by the people smugglers were in no time being used for all sorts of other more sinister traffics that are in the long term proving harder to stop.
But the problem is not simply that the difficulties Albanians encounter when they want to travel give rise to criminal groups within Albania. People who travel illegally are bound to remain under the radar in their host countries too, thus making them much more prone to turn to criminal activities for their livelihoods. And besides they have to pay the travel money back somehow. On the other hand it is understandable that in this day and age when migration has become a very sensitive issue in most developed countries, EU member states cannot simply allow everyone in. The security concerns are also important due to the risk of infiltration by terrorists or criminals. However these are not valid reasons for making it nearly impossible for people to travel. Experience has shown that those who suffer the brunt of the restrictions are ordinary, hard working, law abiding citizens. And besides if one considers that the population of the whole so-called Western Balkans, let alone Albania, is roughly the same as that of Romania, the idea that the EU will be inundated by migrants from these areas becomes ridiculous.
One must not place the blame exclusively on the EU though. Consecutive Albanian governments are even more to blame for not creating the right conditions and for not undertaking the necessary reforms that the EU demands in order to facilitate or liberalize the visa regime. For instance there is as yet no register of the population and no one even knows exactly how many inhabitants Albania has. The certificate regime upon which all identification documents are based is simply not reliable. Two years ago Albanian municipalities were issuing an average of 8 million certificates a year and they are simply too easy to fake as has also been shown during election times. Then there is the corruption at all levels of the state that makes it a child’s work to bribe an official in order to get a clean record. This is not to say that nothing has been done. The border security for instance has improved significantly, and so have the control and security measures of certificates and passports. Still much more remains to be done.
There was some good new lately though with the signing of the Visa Facilitation Agreement between Albania and the EU. In theory this would make it easier for certain categories of Albanians, such as professors, students, businessmen, official delegations (!) to obtain visas although the agreement has still to be ratified by the EU member states and there is no guarantee of that happening. In the meantime Albanians are finding it harder to get visas even from countries where it was easy to travel to in the past, such as Romania and Bulgaria who have recently joined the EU. So if one considers all of these one would be forgiven for considering the enthusiasm of the Albanian government and the EU on the Agreement with a healthy dose of skepticism and for describing what has been achieved as much ado about nothing.
The author is Director of Resarch at the
Albanian Institute International Studies