Albania’s Human Trafficking Tragedy

Albania mourns the Adriatic Sea deaths of 21 illegal immigrants, while Nano survives a no-confidence vote. 19 January 2004 TIRANA, Albania--Albania mourned on 12 January the deaths of 21 impoverished northern Albanians who had died three days earlier when their rubber boat, bound for a better life in Italy, capsized.

There were only eight survivors from the boat, which had progressed fewer than 7 kilometers (4 miles) off Albania's Karaburun peninsula, the closest stretch of land to Italy.

The accident occurred when the boat's engine failed as it battled massive waves. As water swamped the vessel, desperate passengers attempted to call for help using their mobile phones.

The boat was found the following morning, nearly 12 hours after police and television channels received SOS messages sent from the skippers’ mobile phones.

According to Albanian authorities, most of the 21 victims were found either in or near the boat. Eight others have been reported missing. Local media has reported that there may also have been a second boat carrying illegal immigrants, but a search mission has turned up nothing.

It was the third such accident in five years. The Otranto Channel—the 80-kilometer-wide (50-mile) strait that separates Albania from Italy—was a popular passage for Albanian and Italian human trafficking networks to Western Europe throughout the 1990s.

In the peak trafficking years between 1997 and 1999, authorities say that as many as 10,000 people, mostly Albanians, illegally emigrated to Italy every year. Albanian Prime Minister Fatos Nano, however, has prided himself on clamping down on such traffic in 2001. In a symbolic gesture, seven high-powered rubber boats were burned on the beach.

Albania is trying to improve its border controls as requested by NATO and the European Union, organizations the country aspires to join. The boat carrying the illegal immigrants was the first such identified following the government’s announced clampdown on illegal immigration.

A DAY OF MOURNING

Flags were at half mast for a day of mourning called by Albanian President Alfred Moisiu. The deaths have aroused a wave of sympathy across Albania, and more than 13.5 million leks (100,000 euros) have been collected in aid campaigns led by Top Channel TV alone.

Families of the missing who had traveled to the site of the tragedy said they would not leave the region until they knew what happened to their loved ones. Relatives and opposition party members threw flowers into the sea on 17 January.

The victims were from the northern districts of Shkodra and Malesi e Madhe, among Albania's most destitute areas.

Albanian Foreign Minister Kastriot Islami told parliament over the weekend that EU embassies in Tirana have recently issued an increased number of visas to Albanians. The alleged increase in visas for Albanians hoping to travel to the> EU, however, has mostly benefited the middle class, while impoverished

Albanians are forced to seek risky means of illegal immigration. The 30 Albanians who fled Shkodra for Italy had paid 1,300 euros (about $1,583) each for the dangerous boat trip, according to survivors.

According to official statistics, one out of every six Albanians emigrated to the EU, mostly to Italy and Greece, during the 1990s, seeking better living standards.

A senior Foreign Ministry official said last week that the EU is not likely to ease up on its visa restrictions for Albanians any time soon, citing the country’s easily forged passports, as well as its lack of computer technology capable of tracking its nationals and of a proper census. A 2000 Gallup poll of EU nationals found Albanians to be the most unwanted immigrants, along with Turks and Bosnians.

Olivier Dupui, an Italian-Belgian EU parliamentarian, said in an open letter on 15 January that he considered the European Commission to be partially responsible for the 9 January tragedy because of its stringent visa policy.

The Albanian Youth Parliament civic group protested the EU's strict visa regime for Albanians, saying that Albanians deserve to be in Europe and shouldn’t be excluded.

THE POLITICAL BACKLASH

The incident also landed the Albanian government in hot water, with opposition parties initiating a no-confidence vote against Prime Minister Nano for his cabinet’s poor handling of the tragedy at sea.

The opposition accused him of displaying poor leadership by not returning from his vacation in Egypt and Italy immediately after the accident. Nano returned from his holiday just three days before the no-confidence vote against him and five days after the deaths.

Nano, whose governing Socialist Party (PS) controls more than half the seats in parliament, survived the 17 January no-confidence vote by 74 votes to the opposition’s 50.

The incident has also sparked anti-government sentiment among civic groups and the relatives of the victims, who gathered in front of the government building at the beginning of the three-day marathon no-confidence session, shouting “murderer” at Nano.

Mjaft! (Enough!), a youth civic group that has styled itself similarly to Serbia's Otpor (Resistance)--the grassroots movement that played a key role in ousting former Yugoslav and Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic in 2000--entered the national scene by demanding the prime minister's resignation.

The youth movement lit candles in front of the government building in an attempt to remind a suntanned Nano of the recent tragedy.

In the meantime, police have discovered that the boat's two skippers—who were among the eight survivors--were close relatives of two high-ranking police officials in Vlora, where the boat departed from, and Shkodra, where most of the victims were from. Police have so far arrested seven people suspected of involvement in the human trafficking ring.

In 1997, 54 people died when the ship carrying them toward Italy's Apulian coast collided with an Italian border police vessel. Seven others drowned in March 2002 after the speedboat they were on capsized.

--by Altin Raxhimi