Albanians

It is hard to imagine everyday life in Greece without them; people with Albanian roots perform essential work for many day-to-day services, especially in the skilled trades. Their relationship with the majority Greek population has seen ups and downs.

The citizens of North Macedonia no longer consider Greece as a threat to their country but they remain concerned about Bulgaria and Russia, a survey of five Balkan countries has found.

The opinion poll, conducted by Ipsos on behalf of the US-based International Republican Institute (IRI), also found that Albanians consider Greece a serious threat to their country.

The four Albanian construction workers who died in the collapse of a scaffolding in Hamburg on Monday, as well as their injured colleague, worked in Germany with fake Bulgarian passports, Albanian media reports.

The four who died in the collapse of scaffolding in the northern German city of Hamburg were not Bulgarians, but Albanians, Albanian media reports, citing German media. A fifth Albanian was seriously injured.

The Albanian and British authorities said on Tuesday in a joint statement that since December last year, 1,000 Albanian nationals have been returned to their home country - "a combination of failed asylum seekers, foreign national offenders and voluntary returns".

Negative and positive stereotypes about Albanians are the legacy of colonial ideology. However, the recent phenomenon of marginalization spread in the early 1990s, when Albanians emigrated abroad. Albanians felt unwelcome in Western European countries and some of them tried to conceal themselves in order not to be harassed.

During the event, Rama said: "It is another very important moment in Tirana's history, urban development, and architecture, and I believe we will finally be able to breathe a sigh of relief from a long-standing burden of obligation in relation to our children and visitors to our country, related to perhaps the most glorious page of Albanian history, the rescue of Jews during World War II."

Albania has been luring foreign workers to cover shortages in low-paid sectors - touted as a solution to the problem of Albanians heading westwards - but most of them have already moved on.

The UK government introduced to parliament on Tuesday proposed legislation, dubbed the 'Stop the Boats' bill, to crack down on illegal migration, in many cases by Albanians using small boats to cross the Channel from France.

With Albania in the final stages of drafting a new strategy for tackling violent extremism, experts say authorities must do more to address the online propaganda that is helping to radicalise some Albanians.