Yesterday evening dozens of inhabitants from the village Shkoza protested against the destruction of their homes by blocking the main road, which connects the private residence of Prime Minister Edi Rama with the center of Tirana.
According to the project of the Albanian Road Authority (ARrSh) and the Ministry of Transport, 153 families will lose their homes, which will be destroyed to broaden the road. According to journalist Erjon Skëndaj, these include buildings constructed with a legal permit, buildings that are currently being legalized, as well as houses built before the 1990s.
The police responded to the protest with violence against 15 protesters, including a 12-year-old child. On videos of the protest spread through social media, a large number of policemen is visible, who can be seen arrested the parents of a 6-year-old crying and screaming child.
Former Minister of Integration Klajda Gjosha (LSI) stated that the inhabitants were deceived with the electoral promise that their houses would not be destroyed:
These are the first consequences of the vote of June 25, a vote won with many lies but one of them was precisely that the inhabitants were promised that their houses, which were their blood and sweat, wouldn’t be destroyed.
PD deputy Grida Duma visited the protesters yesterday and expressed her solidarity with their cause.
The inhabitants have announced that they will continue their protest until the state finds a way to compensate them without throwing them on the street. The European Court of Human Rights has already on several occasions ordered the Albanian state to properly compensate those who lose their houses to infrastructural projects.
