Sarandë

Albania's council of ministers, headed by Prime Minister Edi Rama, appointed on Wednesday Vangjel Tavo as prefect of the Vlora district, in Albania's south, in a move seen as an effort by Rama to diffuse tensions with Greece, caused by the conviction of the elected mayor of Himare for vote buying.

Τετάρτη 1 Σεπτεμβρίου: Των Αγίων Σαράντα Παρθένων

A report by the country's Institute of the Statistics said that pre-COVID, tourism employed about 64,000 people in 2019 and contributed some 3.23 per cent to the country's GDP.

However, tourism was hit hard in 2020 because of the restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the year saw far fewer entries by Albanian or foreign visitors.

The task of some 71 officers was to crack down on the illegal migration of Albanians to Greece, but they have seized a significant amount of cannabis too, forcing traffickers to vary their tactics and seek out new routes, according to BIRN's findings. Some have abandoned the use of donkeys, preferring to hire young locals as couriers to carry small quantities of drugs on their backs.

Pharmaceutical supplies and medical equipment were sent on Wednesday to ethnic Greeks in Albania by the Attica Regional Authority and the association representing relatives of soldiers that died on the Albanian front during World War II.
The supplies were handed by the Consul General of Greece in Gjirokaster, southern Albania, to the medical center of the municipality of Dropull.

Kelmend Balili in court. Photo: LSA

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras reacted strongly to a move by the Albanian government of Edi Rama to effectively expropriate large tracts of prime seaside properties owned by members of the Greek minority in the upscale coastline town of Himara and neighbouring Sarande.

Saranda Bogujevci, survivor of a massacre of 14 Albanian women and children in Kosovo in 1999, said that a Serbian court’s decision to release one of the convicted attackers on parole was “unacceptable”.

The number of Macedonian citizens holidaying in Albania for the summer has grown to the point where Albania has asked Macedonian police to help patrol the resorts.

Following an agreement between the Interior Ministries of Albania and Macedonia, this summer, for the first time, police from neighbouring Macedonia will help Albanian police tackle not only road policing but also crime.

The draft law on recruiting unpaid volunteers to work alongside Albania's police force and assist them in some of their duties is expected to be debated by MPs in parliament by the end of this week.

"The voluntary police officer is a volunteer who offers citizens and the state police help with enforcing the law, preventing crime and dealing with civil emergency," the draft says.