Buthrintus, between tourism and ilegal trafficking

Two Migrants Dead, One Missing in Albania

20 October 2008 Tirana _ A 22-year-old mother and her 3-month-old toddler were killed on Sunday evening as a boat with 24 migrants capsized in the Butrinti lake in southern Albania.
A 17-year-old is still missing and divers were searching for his body on Monday. Four people are in a critical condition and have been hospitalised in nearby Saranda after being rescued by a border patrol boat.

The 24 migrants were trying to reach the Greek border.People-smuggling has been rampant in Albania over the last two decades. Tens of thousand of migrants were smuggled on speedboats across the Adriatic Sea onto Italian shores. However, a three-year moratorium on speedboats imposed in 2005 has substantially curbed the phenomena. Albania’s Interior Minister Bujar Nishani has proposed extending the country’s moratorium on speedboats along its coast in an effort to thwart illegal smuggling.

The moratorium is due to expire in October. The law had affected around 2,000 local speedboat owners, and aimed to stop traffickers in both people and drugs who use speedboats to reach the shores of Italy and Greece.The only small motorised vessels allowed to venture out into the sea from Albanian shores are police, customs and fishing boats, and foreign-owned tourist yachts.