From: Alice Taylor
Rejected Asylum Seekers Returned to Albania

112 Albanians were repatriated on Friday, from France and England.

They are reported to be individuals who applied for asylum and were not accepted. They were returned on a charter plane to Rinas Airport.

25 Albanians were repatriated from France in October for similar reasons.

Albania, since 2016 is ranked among the first countries for the number of illegal immigrants and unfounded asylum seekers.

Even in the last report of the European Commission on the assessment of the fulfilment of the conditions by Albania for visa-free movement in the Schengen area, the government is asked to “address the problems with illegal immigration and unfounded asylum seekers, including identifying and addressing the reasons why this happens. ”

The State Police repeatedly states that the chance of asylum being granted is zero, but this is not true.

Some 10% of Albanians that seek asylum in France are granted it. In 2019, 820 Albanian citizens received asylum out of 8010 applications, according to the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons.

In the UK during the same year, 3970 applications were made by Albanians. Almost 300 were given refugee status and over 6000 cases were awaiting a response from the government.

Between January 2019 and August 2020, around 30,500 Albanians applied for asylum in the EU- equivalent to 50 people per day.

The approval rate is 4% as an average across EU Member States.