Resorts or Refugee Camps: Fleeing Afghans Get Mixed Reception in Balkans

Some 111 Afghan evacuees arrive at the Pristina International Airport airport​ in Pristina, Kosovo, August 29. Photo: EPA-EFE/VALDRIN XHEMAJ

Care packages and computers

When the first flights carrying Afghan refugees arrived in Albania in early August, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama was adamant that his country will not place them in refugee camps as they were "dehumanising", and that the authorities would make sure that people who had already suffered enough would be received in a more dignified manner.

In line with Rama's promise, most of the 700 refugees who were sent to Albania have been accommodated in hotel resorts along the Adriatic coast, mostly in the town of Lezhe.

Welcome packages have been prepared with basic necessities for the new arrivals, teams of humanitarian workers offering medical and psychological help were at hand, and before long, some journalists were allowed to witness how the refugees were free to mingle on the beaches and by the hotel pools with regular hotel guests.

Afghans in Albania have been granted 'temporary protection' status for one year, with the possibility of extension if needed.

While their rights, including the freedom of movement, are guaranteed under Albania's Law on Asylum, the authorities have however reserved the right to restrict the freedom of movement of specific individuals "if it is considered necessary, based on the individual assessment of each case", the Albanian government said in August.

North Macedonia has followed a similar approach.

Because the Afghan refugees the North Macedonia has taken in are mostly people who worked for international organisations or who helped Western military forces, they were considered a low security...