Prime Minister Edi Rama has spoken out about prejudice Albanians face and the stereotype that they’re all criminals, following a number of months of damaging rhetoric from the UK after numbers of these crossing the channel in boats to hunt asylum surged.
Talking on the Diaspora Coordinating Council on Sunday, Rama stated whereas some have entered the world of criminality, this isn’t the case for all Albanians.
“Albanians are essential contributors in all of the international locations they go to. Albanians who’ve entered the world of crime are a disturbing component, however the drug, crime, and prostitution market was not created by Albanians, however they discovered it and have become a part of it. I’m assured that we’ll break the barricade of prejudice,” Rama stated.
Albanians have lengthy been stereotyped as criminals concerned in drug and folks trafficking. Whereas Albania has an extended historical past of hashish cultivation and human trafficking with prison networks throughout Europe and additional afield, this doesn’t characterize all of the diaspora.
Within the final ten years, some 700,000 individuals have left Albania, bringing the whole to some 1.4 million because the finish of closed borders and a brutal communist dictatorship in 1991. The present wave of migration is fuelled by a mix of points, together with poverty, corruption, psycho-sociological components, and sluggish progress by way of growing infrastructure.
With some 14,000 Albanians travelling to the UK on boats this yr alone, most of whom then went on to hunt asylum regardless of Albania being a protected nation, the highlight has been on the EU hopeful and its authorities.
On the finish of October, UK Residence Secretary Suella Braverman known as Albanians’ arrival an “invasion”. Since then, a lot of the mainstream media and right-wing politicians have run with a story they’re all criminals and should not deserving asylum seekers.
Whereas Albania is taken into account a protected nation, as much as 53% of all asylum requests have been granted within the first occasion within the UK, with some 50% granted on enchantment. Within the EU, Albanians have been among the many highest variety of asylum seekers for a number of years, with approval charges various throughout the bloc.
Rama additionally famous that emigrants have a constructive impression on the Albanian financial system via remittances to relations.
“It’s fascinating to not overlook that the contribution of refugees to emigration in these three many years continues to be fixed in our financial system. Remittances within the final interval have elevated in comparison with a earlier interval. This testifies to the energy of the ties between individuals, households and districts, the custom that’s nonetheless sturdy at the moment within the core of the Albanian household,” Rama stated.
When requested by EURACTIV in an interview what he intends to do concerning the scenario of mass migration, Rama stated he can’t inform them to not go, however he can hope they arrive again.
“I’ve by no means thought, and I nonetheless don’t suppose that it’s a good suggestion to consider and not to mention talk that the younger individuals ought to completely keep right here as a result of I believe they’ve the best to attempt, and they need to make use of their freedom, and it’s completely of their fingers,” Rama stated.
When requested how he feels to see the younger and educated leaving, he stated it’s a phenomenon that impacts many different international locations as nicely.
“I believe it’s a time frame that the nation suffers for human sources from this phenomenon, mind drain, however then again, whenever you see the historical past, everybody, each nation has gone via this type of trance, and sooner or later, it will likely be helpful. I don’t actually see it as a tragedy. I see it as part of this era of historical past and likewise as a part of life.
(Alice Taylor | Exit.al)
