The Predicament of the Albanian Nationals in Greece
Beyond the predicament of the orthodox and muslim Albanians of Greece, Greek persecution extends to the nationals of the Albanian Republic as well. In recent years, reliable human rights organizations consistently cited Greece in their reports for its significant abuses of human rights against Albanian nationals in Greece.After the collapse of communist regime in Albania in 1991, thosands of Albanian nationals left Albania for Greece for better economic conditions. Yet, the Greek government tried to use the migrant Albanian nationals in Greece as a trump card against the Albanian government for political ends. Deterioration of the relations between two countries have many times induced the massive expulsions by Greece of these Albanian nationals.
In 1990s, the Greek police, using unjustified physical violence, deported about 300.000 Albanian citizens who had the required documents, along with those who for dire economic needs had to work illegally in Greece. Their savings earned through hard work were confiscated. Thus, thousands of Albanians who were paid far less than the Greek workers were deported from the country. They used to send to their families in Albania a contribution of about 9.375.000 Dollars per month, a great part of which returned to Greece for imported food products, thereby increasing Greek exports as well. Greece also gained no less than 1 billion Dollars a year from the cheap labour of Albanian workers. As a result of unexpected and violent expulsions, many Albanian immigrants could not take with them even their own savings and personal belongings, estimated at about 10.000.000 dollars. On the other hand, in recent years, torture and ill-treatment against the Albanian nationals under custody have been observed and reported by reliable human rights organizations. It has also been established that those Albanian nationals who accept to become Greek and change their religion are given work-permissions and even Greek passports. In other words, Greece, a member country of the European Union and a state which has put her signature under almost every international agreement related to the protection of human rights forces people under duress to exchange their ethnic and cultural identities for economic livelihood.