Albania Mulls Possible Influx of Refugees

Albania's government has set up a working group at ministerial level to prepare for a possible influx of refugees, although Albania has not yet been affected by the mass movement of people across the Balkans.

Deputy Prime Minister Niko Peleshi said the government was preparing itself for a possible influx amid internet reports of expected arrivals.

"I wish to clarify that we do not have any indication of a possible influx in the next few days but since this has affected our neighbours like Greece and Macedonia, we want to be prepared," Peleshi told Top Channel.

"We have called a working group and issued orders to evaluate our capacities but I must insist that we do not have any information on what could happen," Peleshi added.

An apparently fake news report circulating on the net said Albania was in talks with the UN Refugee Agency about hosting 75,000 Syrian refugees. The government spokesperson Endri Fuga said that the news was baseless.

Prime Minister Edi Rama told the Italian daily Corriere della Sera last week that Albania would welcome refugees.

Albania hosts a few hundred political refugees from the Iranian resistance group Mojahedin-e-Khalq but is otherwise uninteresting as destination or a transit country for the current wave of refugees.