Far Fewer Albanians Seek Asylum in Germany

Germany said only 17,236 asylum seekers from Albania arrived in the country 2016, a sharp drop of more than 34,000 on the previous year, when over 50,000 arrived.

Viktor Merkuri, from the European University of Tirana, told BIRN on Thursday that Germany had successfully discouraged Albanians from seeking asylum by implementing tough repatriation policies.

"Albanians sought asylum on an economic basis, but only 0.01 per cent of these cases were approved and the rest were repatriated. They felt discouraged and as result, the number of applicants decreased and is going to be even lower in 2017," he said.

Germany's Office for Migration and Refugees on Wednesday said 17,236 people from Albania asked for asylum in 2016, around 68 per cent less than in 2015, when 54,762 Albanians asked for this status.

Albanians started leaving their home country en masse for Western Europe in the second half of 2014, when the international crisis over migrants from the Middle East began reaching its peak.

Many Albanians appeared to think that the situation could favour them if they asked for asylum, too.

Numbers remained high during 2015, despite warnings from Brussels and the German and Albanian authorities that the chances of Albanians succeeding in their requests were almost zero.

In 2016, when more than 1 million refugees applied for asylum in Germany, the authorities limited this right strictly to those escaping war zones like Syria and Iraq.

Media outlet Deutsche Welle in a feature on Albanian families seeking asylum in Germany on Tuesday noted that only 10 Albanians gained asylum out of 34,000 requests assessed by the German authorities in 2016.

Many in Albania blame the government's failure to reform the economy for the size...

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