Albania Aims to Register its Huge Diaspora

Albania in January will start what is being called a "patriotic contract" - the registration of all Albanians who live outside the country.

The initiative is being prepared by the Interior Ministry and being conducted for the first time in 25 years, after countless Albanians emigrated, mostly to Western Europe and the United States.

The registration will provide crucial information about the number of Albanians now living outside the country and where they are distributed.

Albania's Interior Minister, Sajmir Tahiri, on Monday used social media to explain how the process will work.

The government will open a portal where people can declare as Albanians living abroad, he wrote. The authorities will then send them a code and ask them to register this code in the portal. After that, they will be officially registered.

Another method of registration will be the usual direct one - contacting Albanian consulates abroad in order to register.

Besides establishing the number of Albanians living abroad, the government aims to use the information to create more facilities for them in relation to legal aid, health and education.

Registration will also ease voting rights. Many Albanians living outside the country have never cast votes in elections.

Presentating the initiative last Friday, the Prime Minister, Edi Rama, said Albanians outside the country will no longer be treated as foreign citizens.

Within two years, the aim was to register every Albanian's address, "inside and outside the country," he said.

Although the initiative is broadly welcomed, organizers of Albanian communities abroad voiced some skepticism.

The former director of the National Albanian-American Council, Avni Mustafaj, told BIRN that he...