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Albania second in the world for asylum seekers under 18 years old

2024-05-03 07:21:00, Aktualitet CNA

Albania second in the world for asylum seekers under 18 years old

Illustrative photo

The rates of young people emigrating to Albania in the last 10 years exceed countries that have experienced bloody wars, those that live in extreme dictatorships and terribly poor countries.

The latest Eurostat data show that from 2013 to 2023, 64,200 Albanians under the age of 18 sought asylum in the countries of the European Union.

In absolute value, this figure was the fifth in the world, but, relative to the population, Albania had the second highest rate of asylum seekers under 18 in the EU, with 241 young people per 10,000 inhabitants.

Albania leaves behind only Syria, which has 266 asylum requests per 10,000 inhabitants. For four years, Syria has been embroiled in a bitter civil war, which has forced a mass exodus from the country. While Albania has been in negotiations to join the European Union for a decade and is listed in the list of safe countries, as it is not at war and is a candidate for the European Union.

Apart from Syria, Albania has a difference with the countries that follow it in the ranking. Eritrea, a dictatorial country in Africa, had an emigration rate of 162.3 people under the age of 18 per 10,000 inhabitants, followed by Georgia with 100 young asylum seekers under the age of 18 per 10,000 inhabitants, Iraq with 38 asylum seekers per 10,000 inhabitants and Somalia with 32 (see chart below).

Although with a small population among the countries of origin of immigrants, Albania leads the global ranking of new asylum seekers in Europe, also in terms of number of people.

Eurostat data show that over the last 10 years, 64,215 thousand young people under the age of 18 from Albania sought asylum in one of the EU countries, ranking our country fourth in the world after Syria (590 thousand), Afghanistan ( 358 thousand), Iraq (170 thousand) and Turkey (64.2 thousand), which have been at war (except Turkey) and have a much larger population than Albania.

Emigration to Albania has reached the proportions of a hemorrhage that is not stopping. The data show that other countries that have experienced high flows of asylum seekers in young age groups are at war and on the verge of war, while in our country the phenomenon is systematic and continues even though Albania is a democratic country with economic growth.

The highest emigration flows of Albanian 18-year-olds culminated in 2015, when about 22,000 young people under the age of 18 sought asylum in an EU country, most of whom were part of families that left the country at that time.

The flows were high and remain so, but we compare them with the young people who have remained in the country. For example, in 2023, 2,455 people under the age of 18 applied for asylum in the EU, ranking our country fourth in the world in terms of population.

But data from local sources show that the outflows of young people are higher than the number of asylum seekers, as a large part are already fleeing for studies and other, with temporary or permanent work contracts and others are fleeing with family reunion.

Expectations from surveys on migration potentials show that emigration flows will continue. In the last year, while the general rate of unemployment has been decreasing, unemployment among young people has increased.

A survey of the Regional Cooperation Council in 2023 showed that 31 percent of Albanians plan to leave the country.

But most importantly, 18 percent of them already have plans and have found ways to escape. The results show that emigration in Albania is more aggressive than in other countries, as a greater percentage of Albanians do not want to emigrate temporarily but permanently. /Monitor