Thousand immigrants come home, thousands go abroad

TIRANA, Jan. 5 – A wave of thousands of Albanian immigrants came back to their homes to celebrate New Year festivities with their families, causing as usual overcrowded land border checkpoints with Greece.
This time the line out of the country was also filled with thousands Albanians who had decided to celebrate the festivities out of their country, now enjoying the visa liberalization from the European Union member countries
This time police had to add more officers to deal with the influx and outflux of Albanians, mainly at the southern border crossings with Greece and also the ports of Durres and Vlora.
It was believed that only from Greece there came hundreds of thousands of Albanians
Albanians raced to claim the honor of making the first visa-free visit to the European Union after the bloc eased entry rules.
It is believed these Albanians were either parents going to their children living abroad or a small group of people who could afford celebrations abroad.
The EU lifted visa requirements for Albanian and also Bosnian holders of biometric passports in mid-December, considered as a milestone on the country’s long journey to EU membership.
more than one million Albanians have paid 50 euros for a biometric passport and long queues were noticed at the local authorities’ offices all around the country.
The EU decided in November to lift the visa requirements for travelers from the two countries, aiming to encourage democratic reforms in the Balkans, but warned that restrictions will be re-imposed if travel rules are abused.
Some EU governments doubt the two membership hopefuls can cope with problems such as illegal immigration and trafficking along drug routes from Asia to Europe, because of weak institutions and corruption. Such concerns rose after relaxed visa requirements for citizens of Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia last year led to a jump in applications for asylum in the EU from the three Balkan countries.
There is noticed no such an application from any Albanian going abroad in the last three weeks.