TIRANA, July 3 /ATA/ – By Gjergji Mima/ – Albania is ready to take on its share of responsibility as part of a European plan on emigrants.
PM Edi Rama told a news conference with his Montenegrin counterpart, Dusko Markovic, when asked about the crisis of emigrants that: “Albania and Montenegro were not part of the corridor when the big crisis of refugees broke out. Yet, in every round table we have been very clear about our approach. We are willing to take on our share of responsibility in a European plan. A fair share of course. There is no reason whatsoever to build fences or act like heroes. Last year saw 15 times the flow. As a relative number it is not as high as to raise the alarm and knock on the doors of Europe,” PM Rama said.
Rama pointed out that Albania is not the country that builds fences or puts on a show of refusal to those in extreme need forced to flee their country in fear for their lives.
We have received bids for free fences, but the matter of the fact is that our country has a history of migration. Added to that, our people is proud to have saved the Jews who turned out to be much more in number after World War Two than before. Actually Albania has provided shelter to nearly 3 thousand Iranian refugees. We should bear in mind that this small country has hosted roughly 500 thousand war refugees threatened by Milosevic-masterminded ethnic cleansing,” PM Rama said.
We stay in contact with our friends to make sure we will not come under threat from flows that are far beyond our capacities, Rama said.
For his part, Montenegrin PM Dusko Markovic said that concerning migration nothing new is looming on the horizon relative to 2015. The large migratory wave has not swept Montenegro. In 2015 Montenegro approved an action plan on migratory flow. Today for certain political and manipulative reasons there’s talk that we will build refugees camps. This will not happen. However, the country will be on standby to deal with any potential challenge.
Our country has hosted emigrants who were provided with decent living conditions. Some of them have remained in Montenegro, others have returned home. However, it is our task to provide whatever help and support necessary for these desperate people. Large organizations are united behind solidarity,” Markovic said.
Montenegro and Albania have adopted an accountable approach, there’s no threat for the Albanian side. No way shall we build fences or camps, we are safe, stability is a priority of our two governments and
I think that through shared efforts we can guarantee sustainable development.
NATO also works on the principle of solidarity, he said, adding that “it is true that we have identified a larger flow of illegal entries into Montenegro via the Albanian border, but as you know, the Internal Affairs Ministries of Montenegro and Albania had a meeting 10 days ago and thrashed this issue out. ”
We will jointly work to make sure our boundaries are safe, our two countries are much safer and in the event of a large flow of immigrants crossing into our two countries, we will adhere to our obligations, we will safeguard stability because stability is crucial to our citizens,” Montenegrin PM said.
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