Albania cracks down on human trafficking

Albania cracks down on human trafficking

The group was allegedly aided by high ranking Albanian police officers, including the head of the Gjirokaster border police unit, Nishani said. Greek law enforcement agencies also cooperated with Albania’s police action by providing intelligence information.

A source in the Albanian Interior Ministry told Balkan Insight that they had kept the criminal gang under surveillance for the last three months, documenting their activities.

Albania became a centre for human trafficking in the late 1990s. Pressure from the European Union, which the country hopes to join, has prompted the authorities to take a tougher line recently on organized crime rings.

In 2006, the Albanian parliament approved a three-year moratorium on the use or sale of speedboats in order to curb human trafficking and drug smuggling across the Adriatic into southern Italy.