Albania Would Welcome Refugees, Rama Says

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama told the Italian daily Corriere Della Sera that if Albania could take in half a million Kosovars in the late 1990s, Europe could surely deal with the current refugee crisis now.

Gjergj Erebara

BIRN

Tirana

Edi Rama. Photo: LSA

Prime Minister Edi Rama, who was visiting Puglia in southern Italy, told the online edition of Corriere Della Sera on Tuesday that Albania would welcome Syrian refugees - although refugees crossing the Balkans towards Germany had largely bypassed Albania so far.
“Albania is a small country and it is difficult for us to give advice. We have not been confronted with such a challenge because they prefer to go toward north towards Germany," he said.
But when we hear about walls... against refugees, we think about 1999 when we received half a million Albanians from Kosovo," he added. "If we were able to accommodate them, surely Europe can do it [now],” Rama continued.
Albanians have had a long history of mass emigration to EU countries during the last decades and some Albanians have recently organized collections of donations for Syrian refugees.
Albanians are also the second biggest group of asylum seekers behind Syrians in Germany currently. During August, 8,306 more Albanians filed new asylum claims, Germany said last week.
However, the Middle Eastern refugees currently trying to reach Germany through the Balkans do not cross Albania, which lies far from the main route most of them take.