| Population: 3,510,484
Population Growth Rate: 0.88%
Birth Rate: 19.01 births/1,000 population
Life Expectancy: total population: 71.83 years;
male: 69.01 years; female: 74.87 years
Literacy Rate: total population: 93%
Net Migration Rate: –3.69 migrants/1,000 population
Unemployment Rate: 16%, officially; may be as high as 25%
Gross Domestic Product per Capita: US$3,000
Religions: Muslim 70%, Albanian Orthodox 20%, Roman Catholic 10%
Languages: Albanian (Tosk is the official dialect), Greek
Ethnic Groups: Albanian 95%, Greek 3%, other 2% (Vlachs, gypsies, Serbs, and Bulgarians) (1989 estimate)
Capital: Tirana
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Albania is a country of origin and transit for women and children trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation. According to a report conducted by Save the Children, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and the International Catholic Migration Commission, which was based on interviews with 125 women, 60 percent of Albanians trafficked for prostitution are children. Of those trafficked, almost 60 percent are tricked into prostitution, whereas 35 percent are abducted. Also, in rural areas, up to 90 percent of girls over the age of 14 no longer go to school for fear of being abducted.[1] An ABC news report claims that more than 30,000 Albanian girls and young women have been kidnapped and auctioned into western Europe for purposes of forced prostitution.[2] The International Center for Migration Policy Development in Vienna estimates that many Albanians are among the 400,000 women and girls trafficked into western European countries and forced into prostitution each year. Most of these women and girls are younger than 25 years of age and are lured by promises of legitimate jobs.[3] Several reports were released from human rights groups in 1998. According to one human rights report, more than 14,000 Albanian women in prostitution are in various European countries.[4] Another group reported more than 8,000 Albanian girls and women—30 percent of whom were under 18—were in prostitution in Italy. In 2000, that number had increased to 20,000. An Albanian police official estimates that 30 to 40 percent of the women and girls were kidnapped and forced into prostitution. Of these, 40 percent are believed to be minors. An additional 5,000 Albanian women and girls are believed to be in prostitution in Greece, including 700 minors. Another 250 women and children in prostitution may be found in Austria, and 180 may be found in France. More were found in Britain, Germany, and Switzerland. The study indicated that Albanian pimps, who are not hesitant to use violence, control the women and children.[5] In 1997, one human rights agency reported that as many as 50,000 Albanian women have been trafficked into Italian brothels in the last 2 years.[6] In 2001, Italian police arrested more than 100 men suspected of running an international prostitution ring. Most of the suspects are reported to be Albanian, and they are believed to have forced hundreds of young women from Albania, eastern Europe, and South America, into prostitution. The suspects have been charged with homicide, membership in organized crime groups, trafficking in drugs and people, and extortion.[7] In 2000, Italian police arrested 69 Albanians involved in a prostitution ring in central and south Italy. The organization is involved in prostitution and trafficking drugs. The operation involved 600 policemen in four regions.[8] In 2000, IOM received three women in Bucharest who had been trafficked to Albania. In the last year, IOM Bucharest assisted 205 trafficked women and girls, 25 percent of whom were minors. All of them had been forced into prostitution in nightclubs and bars throughout the Balkan region. Nearly 50 percent of them came from the northeast region of Romania. The women reported that they had been told they would work as waitresses.[9] In 1999, UNICEF reported that Albanian gangs were abducting Kosovar refugee girls and trafficking them to brothels in Italy, where they are sold for US$10,000 each. The gangs have developed a reputation for being among the most ruthless criminal networks involved in trafficking in the world.[10]
Albania shares many characteristics with other former Soviet bloc countries, including severe economic hardship that has contributed to the massive exodus of both men and women in search of lucrative employment. Albania’s strong organized crime network, as well as the rampant corruption within the government, has provided a structure that permits traffickers to carry out their activities. Kurdish refugees from Turkey and Iraq are reported to pay as much as US$1,000 to be taken across the Macedonian and Greek borders by Albanian gangs.[11] Former Albanian president Sali Berisha accused his country’s leaders of facilitating trafficking between Albania and Italy. His remarks were targeted at the former defense minister, the present security adviser, and the present speaker of parliament.[12] Massive numbers of emigrants desperate to escape the political and economic hardships of Albania serve as a smokescreen for current trafficking activities. Throughout the intensive fighting in the Yugoslav province of Kosovo, high numbers of Albanians fled to Italy, some even by high-speed inflatable boats.[13] In Vlorë, records show that 200 smuggling boats crammed the harbor daily in 1998; yet city records do not include any police reports of arrests for trafficking for prostitution.[14] By the same token, Albanian Justice Minister Arben Imami noted that “five years ago, controls were so tight you couldn’t even move within Albania from one city to the next, let alone cross the border,” when he conceded that his country had since become a major exporter and point of transit for illegal immigrants.[15] Greek authorities detained 30 illegal Iraqi Kurd and Albanian immigrants in two separate incidents. They also arrested a Turkish man accused of smuggling half of the immigrants into Greece in a fishing boat. In another incident, 15 Albanians—14 men and one woman—were arrested off the island of Corfu in the Ionian Sea near the Albanian coast.[16] The port of Vlorë is a “smuggler’s paradise,” a recognized sending point for boats full of illegal immigrants and victims of trafficking from eastern Europe as well as from Albania to Italy.[17] Kosovars spilling into Albania are vulnerable to organized crime activities like human trafficking and are being ferried to western Europe, including Italy, and are being forced into prostitution.[18] In addition to being trafficked from Albania to Italy and other southern European countries, Albanian women and girls are also part of the largest contingent of women being shipped by traffickers to Brussels, Belgium. According to Belgian police, Albanian girls between 14 and 15 years of age constitute nearly half of the foreign women forced into prostitution in Belgium.[19]
Prostitution is considered a “criminal act against morality and dignity” pursuant to section 8 of the Albanian Criminal Code,[20] which specifies as criminal acts practicing prostitution, indulging prostitution, using one’s premises for prostitution, practicing homosexuality, practicing pornography, desecrating graves, insulting, publishing libel, intruding into another’s privacy, spreading personal secrets, and halting or violating the privacy of correspondence.
Prostitution is illegal in accordance with article 113 of the Criminal Code, which states that “prostitution is sentenced [by] a fine of up to three years of imprisonment.” The code also prohibits soliciting prostitution, mediating acts of prostitution, or gaining from prostitution,[21] as well as managing, using, financing, or leasing premises for the purpose of prostitution.[22] A new law criminalizes trafficking in persons and provides for a penalty of up to 15 years imprisonment. The penalty is a minimum of 15 years imprisonment in cases involving trafficking in minors. Intercourse with minor girls is a sexual offense under the Criminal Code, provided that the minor has not reached the age of 13 or has not reached sexual maturity.[23] Nonconsensual sexual intercourse with a minor girl between the ages of 14 and 18 years is also illegal.[24]
The 1993 Albanian Labor Code prohibits forced labor. The code sets the minimum age of employment at 16 years.[25] The prohibition of forced labor is also stated in the constitution, which explicitly provides that “no one may be required to perform forced labor.”[26]
Albania adopted a new law on money laundering in October 2000 and is in the process of reviewing legislation on the confiscation of assets coming from corruption.
Albania has signed an agreement with Italy to increase cooperation in the fight against illegal immigration. Under this agreement, Italian police will offer assistance to Albanian authorities in their efforts to combat all forms of organized crime.
Albania has ratified the International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention (105) on the Abolition of Forced Labor; the ILO Convention (182) to Eliminate the Worst Forms of Child Labor; and the United Nations (UN) Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery. Albania also signed the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children.
However, Albania has not ratified the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution, and Child Pornography or the UN International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.
[1] “Albanian Blamed for ‘Major Role’ in Human Trafficking,” Albanian Daily News, 19 April 2001.
[2] Bob Woodruff, World News Tonight, 21 May 2001 <http://more.abc.news.go.com/sections/wnt/WorldNewsTonight/albanian_sexslavery_010521.html>.
[3] “A Single Market in Crime,” Economist, 16–22 October 1999.
[4] “More than 14,000 Albanians Work as Prostitutes in Europe,” Agence France Presse, 18 July 1998.
[5] “More than 14,000 Albanian Women Are Working as Prostitutes in Europe,” Agence France Presse, 18 July 1998.
[6] International Organization for Migration, “Report on Trafficking,” 1997.
[7] “Italian Police Bust Sex Slave Ring,” BBC, 9 April 2001.
[8] “Italy Arrests Dozens of Albanians in Prostitution Ring,” Albanian Daily News, 21 June 2000.
[9] International Organization for Migration Press Briefing Notes, 27 February 2001.
[10] Lori Montgomery, “Albanians Sell Kosovo Women into Prostitution,” Miami Herald, 30 May 1999.
[11] “The Gangsters’ Paradise the Motherland Is a Nest of Drug Traffickers, Weapons Dealers and People Smugglers,” Newsweek International, 26 March 2001.
[12] Tirana Masterminding Trafficking between Albania, Italy; Ex-president,” Agence France Presse, 26 July 2000.
[13] Sandrine Pittaluga, “Italy Flooded with Illegal Immigrants in 1998,” Agence France Press, 17 December 1998.
[14] Jeffrey Fleishman, “Fleeing Poverty, Finding Slavery,” Inquirer, Stop-Traffic List Serve, 12 May 2000.
[15] Steve Pagani, “Italy Is European Frontier in Immigration Battle,” Reuters, 26 July 2000.
[16] “Authorities Detain 30 Illegal Immigrants and One Smuggler,” Associated Press, 16 May 2001.
[17]“World Affairs Albania: The Gangsters’ Paradise the Motherland Is a New of Drug Traffickers, Weapons Dealers and People Smugglers,” Newsweek International,, 26 March 2001.
[18] Lori Montgomery, “Albanians Sell Kosovo Women into Prostitution,” Miami Herald, 30 May 1999.
[19] Michelle Carlile, “Belgium Faces Rising Tide of Prostitutes,” Reuters, 16 November 1999.
[20] Law No. 7895, 27 January 1995.
[21] Article 113.
[22] Article 114. “Indulging prostitution.” The sentence is a fine or up to 5 years’ imprisonment. If the offense is committed against a minor girl or forcibly, the penalty is increased to 5 to 10 years’ imprisonment.
[23] Article 100. The sentence for the offense is from 5 to 15 years’ imprisonment. The sentence may increase to from 10 to 20 years’ imprisonment when sexual intercourse is performed without consent, or when the victim’s health has been seriously harmed. When the act has resulted in the death or suicide of the minor girl, the sentence is no less than 20 years’ imprisonment.
[24] Article 101.
[25] Children of at least 14 may work in part-time jobs during summer vacations.
[26] Article 26. According to article 26, the prohibition does not apply in cases of “execution of a judicial decision, the performance of military service, or a service that results from any emergency condition or natural disaster that threatens human life and health.” See generally, Emin S. Toro, “Comment: Of Courts and Rights: Constitutionalism in Post-Communist Albania, ” 25 N.C.J. Int’l Law and Com. Reg. 485 (2000).
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