Albanian Asylum-Seeker Numbers in Germany Rise Again

The number of Albanians requesting asylum spiked once again in September, after numbers fell in the first part of 2016. 

A year exactly after Berlin acted to curb the numbers, by declaring Albania a safe country, the phenomenon of thousands people seeking asylum each month has started to emerge again. 

According to the EU statistics agency Eurostat, in September 2016, the number of Albanians seeking asylum to Germany rose to 2,250, the highest monthly figure this year.

The number of Albanians seeking asylum in January 2016 was only 1,200. It dropped further in March to only 825.

But numbers started to rise again in summer, hitting 1,390 in July, 1,635 in August and then 2,250 in September.

The total number seeking asylum in Germany from January to September was 11,895. However, during the same period of time in 2015, the number seeking asylum was 44,325, almost four times higher - which shows a sharp decline, year on year.

Referring to the same Eurostat data, 890 citizens of Macedonia sought asylum in Germany in September for the first time, while 565 people from Kosovo did so.

Roland Lami, a sociologist, and professor at the European University of Tirana, told BIRN that the difficult economic situation in Albanian was again driving people to go abroad at any cost, even if their chances of success in claiming asylum were near zero.

"The instinct for survival is stronger than the power of reason. A large number of people in Albania live below the minimum conditions they need survive, so what is more important for them is to survive than calculate the chances of winning asylum rights in Germany," he said.

"Escaping from misery is their main aim despite the costs and the risks that this journey...