Welcome to camp Tirana
Mendova se do te ishte me interes kjo teme, pasi nje marreveshje e tille jo vetem qe e perjashton mundesine, sado te vogel, te shqiptareve per te kerkuar strehim si refugjate ne vendet e tjera, por c'eshte me e rendesishmja, shtyn afatin e hyrjes se Shqiperise ne BE edhe me tutje se c'mund te ishte parashikuar deri tani mbi bazat e kushteve te vendosura per te gjitha vendet jashte BE'se.
C'mendoni ju?
It's been suggested that asylum-seekers arriving in the UK will be sent on to Albania. So how would they fare there? Esther Addley reports
Tuesday March 11, 2003
The Guardian
Planning to visit Albania? If so the Foreign Office has a few tips. "Public security has improved considerably in Albania ... but crime and violence still represent a serious problem in some areas," its website cautions solemnly. "Drink only bottled water and UHT milk. Medical facilities (including accident and emergency) are very poor. We do not recommend using the dental facilities."
Of particular concern, it warns, are hepatitis, rabies (due to "the large numbers of stray dogs") and tick-borne encephalitis ("we advise travellers to keep all areas of the body covered when close to shrubs, and to inspect themselves regularly for ticks"). In fact, it concludes, better safe than sorry: make sure your medical insurance covers evacuation by helicopter, just in case the worst should happen.
All of which will, no doubt, be enormously cheering to the 100,000-plus visitors per year who may, soon, be heading Tirana's way. According to reports over the weekend, the government has come up with a novel solution to its ongoing headache over the booming numbers of refugees seeking asylum in the UK. Instead of lavishing them with cash and housing them in luxurious council accommodation, as happens at present, or building state-of-the-art reception centres in which they can dwell together with a terrific feeling of security, the home secretary apparently believes they deserve an Adriatic holiday while they wait for their claims to be processed. Refugees arriving in Britain, the reports suggested, whatever their country of origin, would be flown to Albania the moment their feet touch British soil, and given the benefit of that country's hospitality.
Despite the Home Office's hasty denial yesterday of any such plans, it is not difficult to see why such a notion might appeal to Albania. It has a small population (just over 3.5 million), lots of mountains where spa-type accommodation could be built and, with an unemployment rate of between 17-30%, a steady supply of Butlins-style "hosts" to ensure the visitors had the warmest of receptions. It also has a gross domestic product per capita of £730, an infant mortality rate of 38.6 per 1,000 live births, and a third of its population living below the poverty line, so the cash would doubtless come in handy too. Albania's main industries are cement, oil, chromium, nickel, copper and hydroelectric power - why not add asylum seekers to the list? We pay other countries to dispose of our rubbish and process our nuclear waste, after all - why not to house the refugees we don't want in our backyard? They might even get a tan while they were out there. Result all round.
No one at the Albanian embassy was able to confirm yesterday whether the country's president Alfred Moisiu, who is visiting London this week, would be meeting home office officials to discuss the plan. But it is surely a ringing endorsement of his presidency if it is indeed the case that, only a month after the country was itself deemed free of any form of political persecution and added to the government's "white list" of countries from which asylum claims would be deemed baseless, David Blunkett now considers Albania the ideal place to send people fleeing persecution in Iraq, Sudan or even Zimbabwe.
Not that the Albanians the Guardian spoke to yesterday were convinced by the suggestion. "If you see it purely on the economic side, it has its attractions because Albania does need money, and it also needs links with other countries," says Tomorr Kokona, a dancer and choreographer from London who now teaches citizenship to arriving refugees. "Collaboration with the British government in general would be a good thing. But not on these terms, where Albania pays very heavily. I can't say I would feel very proud of this. Especially with the reception that many Albanians have received here when they were coming to Britain looking for asylum."
"What's next, do we contact Nasa and ask them if they could look after some people on the moon until we decide they are good enough to come to Britain?" asks Gizim Alpion, a lecturer at Birmingham University who is originally from the country's north-east. "I would be terribly insulted if the Albanian government were to accept this, no matter how much money they were offered." He plans to raise the matter with President Moisiu today when they meet at a reception for expatriates.
So what could our traumatised, journey-weary voyagers expect when they arrived in Albania? Is it a welcoming place, for instance? "Oh yes," says Alpion. "We are very hospitable. From the seventh century AD onwards, for instance, we were the first country to welcome waves of Slav refugees." He pauses. "Actually, we paid a very heavy price for that. We were very naive. Anyway, the point is, we were very welcoming. We would be again."
Just as long as they stay away from the tapwater and the rabid dogs.
Mendova se do te ishte me interes kjo teme, pasi nje marreveshje e tille jo vetem qe e perjashton mundesine, sado te vogel, te shqiptareve per te kerkuar strehim si refugjate ne vendet e tjera, por c'eshte me e rendesishmja, shtyn afatin e hyrjes se Shqiperise ne BE edhe me tutje se c'mund te ishte parashikuar deri tani mbi bazat e kushteve te vendosura per te gjitha vendet jashte BE'se.
C'mendoni ju?
It's been suggested that asylum-seekers arriving in the UK will be sent on to Albania. So how would they fare there? Esther Addley reports
Tuesday March 11, 2003
The Guardian
Planning to visit Albania? If so the Foreign Office has a few tips. "Public security has improved considerably in Albania ... but crime and violence still represent a serious problem in some areas," its website cautions solemnly. "Drink only bottled water and UHT milk. Medical facilities (including accident and emergency) are very poor. We do not recommend using the dental facilities."
Of particular concern, it warns, are hepatitis, rabies (due to "the large numbers of stray dogs") and tick-borne encephalitis ("we advise travellers to keep all areas of the body covered when close to shrubs, and to inspect themselves regularly for ticks"). In fact, it concludes, better safe than sorry: make sure your medical insurance covers evacuation by helicopter, just in case the worst should happen.
All of which will, no doubt, be enormously cheering to the 100,000-plus visitors per year who may, soon, be heading Tirana's way. According to reports over the weekend, the government has come up with a novel solution to its ongoing headache over the booming numbers of refugees seeking asylum in the UK. Instead of lavishing them with cash and housing them in luxurious council accommodation, as happens at present, or building state-of-the-art reception centres in which they can dwell together with a terrific feeling of security, the home secretary apparently believes they deserve an Adriatic holiday while they wait for their claims to be processed. Refugees arriving in Britain, the reports suggested, whatever their country of origin, would be flown to Albania the moment their feet touch British soil, and given the benefit of that country's hospitality.
Despite the Home Office's hasty denial yesterday of any such plans, it is not difficult to see why such a notion might appeal to Albania. It has a small population (just over 3.5 million), lots of mountains where spa-type accommodation could be built and, with an unemployment rate of between 17-30%, a steady supply of Butlins-style "hosts" to ensure the visitors had the warmest of receptions. It also has a gross domestic product per capita of £730, an infant mortality rate of 38.6 per 1,000 live births, and a third of its population living below the poverty line, so the cash would doubtless come in handy too. Albania's main industries are cement, oil, chromium, nickel, copper and hydroelectric power - why not add asylum seekers to the list? We pay other countries to dispose of our rubbish and process our nuclear waste, after all - why not to house the refugees we don't want in our backyard? They might even get a tan while they were out there. Result all round.
No one at the Albanian embassy was able to confirm yesterday whether the country's president Alfred Moisiu, who is visiting London this week, would be meeting home office officials to discuss the plan. But it is surely a ringing endorsement of his presidency if it is indeed the case that, only a month after the country was itself deemed free of any form of political persecution and added to the government's "white list" of countries from which asylum claims would be deemed baseless, David Blunkett now considers Albania the ideal place to send people fleeing persecution in Iraq, Sudan or even Zimbabwe.
Not that the Albanians the Guardian spoke to yesterday were convinced by the suggestion. "If you see it purely on the economic side, it has its attractions because Albania does need money, and it also needs links with other countries," says Tomorr Kokona, a dancer and choreographer from London who now teaches citizenship to arriving refugees. "Collaboration with the British government in general would be a good thing. But not on these terms, where Albania pays very heavily. I can't say I would feel very proud of this. Especially with the reception that many Albanians have received here when they were coming to Britain looking for asylum."
"What's next, do we contact Nasa and ask them if they could look after some people on the moon until we decide they are good enough to come to Britain?" asks Gizim Alpion, a lecturer at Birmingham University who is originally from the country's north-east. "I would be terribly insulted if the Albanian government were to accept this, no matter how much money they were offered." He plans to raise the matter with President Moisiu today when they meet at a reception for expatriates.
So what could our traumatised, journey-weary voyagers expect when they arrived in Albania? Is it a welcoming place, for instance? "Oh yes," says Alpion. "We are very hospitable. From the seventh century AD onwards, for instance, we were the first country to welcome waves of Slav refugees." He pauses. "Actually, we paid a very heavy price for that. We were very naive. Anyway, the point is, we were very welcoming. We would be again."
Just as long as they stay away from the tapwater and the rabid dogs.