Two weeks ago, the International Relations Committee of the House of Lords in the United Kingdom organized a meeting around the theme “Beyond Brexit: the UK and the Balkans.” One of the people invited as witness was Albanian ambassador to the UK, Qirjako Qirko.
During his exchange with the British Lords, Ambassador Qirko also touched upon the thorny issue of emigration from Albania:
There is a problem. Even from our countries in the Western Balkans there is some illegal immigration, people trying to enter in the UK. Of course this is something that we are taking all measures to stop. I don’t want to enter into details. But it is a problem for my government, […] trying to control this influx of illegal immigration.
At the end the reason is the same, why the Germans would like to come, why the French would like to come, […] but being not EU members they are illegally immigrating. My government is trying to take all the necessary steps to check and to control this influx of illegal immigration.
Ambassador Qirko takes here a very different position from Prime Minister Edi Rama, who recently declared that “no one is keeping track,” ignoring, unlike his representative in the UK, the crucial difference that Albania is not an EU member:
…looking for a better life and a job outside the country is the most normal thing in the world. It happens in every country, and continues to happen. And for the problem is that we are not part of the free market, of work forces. No one is keeping track in any country when the Polish are moving, or the Czechs, of the Hungarians, with millions and millions to work in the countries of the European Union or the Western countries. […] No one is keeping track because it’s work force that’s moving.
Asked more precisely about the emigration of highly educated Albanians, such as doctors, toward Western Europe, Ambassador Qirko stated that this has not yet become a problem, but that within the current government period the lack of doctors and nurses will start to be felt:
For the moment Albania is not feeling this problem. We might face this gap in 2–3 years. Referring to the medical doctors, Germany is offering some opportunity to nurses and doctors. In Albania we have a very good medical school, and some doctors, last year around 100, have applied and win the opportunity to work in Germany. If this trend will continue like this, we will feel this gap in medics and nurses.
Each year, doctors and nurses with the highest scores can apply for a work position in Germany, which faces an aging population. This is, however, the first time that an Albanian public official acknowledges that the constant emigration of capable medical personnel will have a negative impact on the Albanian healthcare system.
