“We're gay and violated”, so Albanians in France get asylum

Albania was the first home of asylum seekers in 2017 in France, with 7630 applications listed, a 66 per cent increase, according to O figures FPRA published Monday. So it ranks before Afghanistan, Haiti and Sudan for the number of asylum applications. In a French script “lExpress”, why are there so many questions raised by a country considered safe from the EU?

It explains that the main reason for people is economic inadequacy, which is at survival levels in Albania. Although Albania is considered a safe country from the EU, because there are no major wars or dangers, hard living has forced hundreds of thousands of Albanians to leave the country, with a high degree of immigration marking the country for years.

According to official data, today an Albanian's chances of receiving asylum in France have been reduced. Only 6.5 per cent of Albanian applicants have won asylum in 2017. And perhaps they have been forced to use one of the arguments that “save” asylum demand even in safe places. There are tolerances in cases of acts of violence against women, discrimination against persons LGBTI or ethnic minorities, among other things.

However, for citizens of their countries “safely”, the procedure for reviewing the asylum demand file is accelerated. “This does not exceed three months”, argues Pascal Brice, director of O FPRA, against seven to eight months that lasted the process two years ago.

According to Natalie Clayer, specialist in Albania for E HESS, “Albanians flee poverty and unemployment- Sia”.

The French newspaper writes that “This small mountain and rural country is one of the poorest in Europe, with an average salary of less than 350 euros a month. The youth unemployment rate exceeded 33 percent in 2017, according to the World Bank”.

Albania has one of the highest immigration rates in Europe -- a third of the population has left Albania in the past 25 years, according to the immigration policy website. As a result, Albania, which had 3.5 million inhabitants in the early 1990s, now has less than 3 million. And the average age, which in the 1990s was among the lowest in Europe (28 years), is now more than 37. Albanian Exodus is not new news.

“Albania has always been a immigration country”, adds Natalie Clayer.

Fenomen was interrupted during 45 years of communist rule, one of the most closed in Europe. “Regime, even checking internal migration, limiting rural ecstasy to towns”, according to the study.

The fall of the dictatorship in 1991 quickly led to an influx of immigrants abroad, mainly in Italy and Greece. Since the 1990s, about 600,000 Albanians have been deployed in Italy, 500,000 in Greece, according to figures by Migration Policy.

Some of those who had settled in Greece returned to the country due to the crisis, which hit the neighbouring country since 2008. In addition to the 2008 crisis, which has prevented the beginning of an improvement in the economic situation in Albania, political stagnation probably contributes to the continuation of ecstasy, according to Natalie Clayer.

“Political change four years ago has brought no changes to the situation in the country, corruption and clienteleism are still high”.

Since 2003, France has compiled a list of the safe “countries where Albania is part of it. But the Geneva Convention applies to all “refugees without discrimination for race, religion or country of origin”. This principle obligates each signatory country to deal with all asylum requirements, whether it is considered “secure”.

The increase in the influx of Albanian migration to France motivated the trip of Gerard Collob to Tirana in mid-December. France has pressured Albania to tighten its evacuation controls. Since August, more than 9000 starters have been blocked by Albania.