Today, 50 Saranda fishermen are protesting high oil prices and being refused financial relief, or “war wages” as Prime Minister Edi Rama calls them.
The fishermen are denouncing the fact that, though the price of oil has fallen drastically in the stock market and fishing ships are purchasing oil at stock market value, Albanian companies continue selling them oil at pre-pandemic prices.
High oil prices, combined with their product no longer being purchased by restaurants that have closed due to the pandemic, are leading these fishermen to bankruptcy.
Additionally, they claim that, although they are registered as workers with the Social Security office, and their work has been suspended as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, their applications to receive financial relief from the government have been rejected.
They called on the government to treat their case as a priority, as their families have been in financial distress for two months.
These same issues have also led Durrës fishermen to protest last week.
