Press conference by Prime Minister Edi Rama upon arrival of 14 children and five women back home after being removed from Syria’s notorious Al Hawl camp:

Prime Minister Edi Rama: Thank you for taking the trouble to attend this conference at this unusual hour! It is actually the time when an incredible operation was completed, allowing us to send 19 more compatriots back to their homes after being repatriated from Syria’s hell camps. This time, there are five women and 14 children, we succeeded to repatriate after a long effort and a complex and dangerous operation, definitely thanks to the specific contribution provided by Albania’s Honorary Consul in Lebanon, Mr. Marc Ghorayeb, and General Abass, whom I thanked in person at an earlier press conference prior to our departure, in the presence of a considerable number of media outlets of countries on that side of the world.

It’s really a positive event, I think, and of course we won’t stop here.

Another operation has to be carried out to repatriate still an unknown precise number of people, because it is a fieldwork to find them in those black holes they are currently in, but we reckon a similar number of people we repatriated today, if not smaller, given that more than half of them have already been removed from there and have already returned back home.

An important role was played in this operation by the anti-terror structure at the Ministry of Interior and the State Police.

I would like to extend my appreciation to the Interior Minister for overseeing the operation for months now and for his special trip to Beirut for a close meeting with General Abass and other officials.

This is an ongoing pledge and commitment since this problem emerged and this is a commitment we are continuously delivering on persistently and we will get to the bottom of it.

-With these individuals being repatriated from the notorious refugee camps, what does the government plan to reintegrate these people into Albanian society?

 

PM Edi Rama: These individuals have been repatriated by our special combined structures of the State Police and the Ministry of Social Welfare. They will be sheltered by a specifically established structure in Durres, where they will undergo all the necessary medical and psychological tests and where they will observe a short quarantine period and they will then be sent to their homes and relatives or be accommodated at this special shelter centre. However, please bear in mind the fact that it is about children and women only. This makes it easier for us in terms of security, while it will be definitely demanding in psychological and social terms and we are prepared and ready for that, just like we have already done for the previously repatriated people.

-You said it was one of the toughest rescue operations. Why? Are there other children still residing at Syria camps, although an exact number of the persons in these camps has yet to be established?

 

PM Edi Rama: Operations of this kind are extremely difficult as they take place in a non-friendly terrain, they take place in a terrain of warring groups and war camps are not like the holiday camps. Not only that, but they are not even state-run camps operating according to an established regulation. They are war camps set up in a half improvised way and their authorities vary. So, the work being done in this respect is a double work, involving communication with the camp authorities, and intelligence work with the undercover individuals who infiltrate the camps to collect information.

Different dynamics take place inside the camp, with individuals who refuse to show up, other individuals who are taken hostage by other people inside there. The situation there is a living hell. All these combined make the operation extremely complex and, as the General stated this morning, the operation involved a grave threat to the lives of people involved in this operation. This is the operation’s complexity.

As far as the number of people still in Syria’s camps, I already said this is an ongoing daily and monthly work, as it also involves search and rescue activities. We have forwarded a certain number of profiles since the very beginning, when we established contacts also thanks to the precious help of our Consul in Lebanon. However they are all profiles we possess years ago, when these individuals turned out to have departed for that notorious front and where some of them have unfortunately died, and a part of them includes children, women and former fighters. The latter are currently imprisoned and therefore the number of people still to be repatriated remains unclear.

-Have the authorities identified groups of Albanian nationals who refuse to return back to Albania and is there any effort to raise their awareness and convince them to come back home?

 

PM Edi Rama: Two sporadic cases have been identified so far, two cases we are aware of, I would say, yet I can’t provide names and disclose the identities of individuals who have refused to come back, but the intelligence information show they are mainly individuals who have been taken hostage within the camps; they are persons who can’t leave the camps as they are afraid and the fear is based on the fact that they could be killed while feeling the camps. So, as far as we know, two identified individuals have refused and have not taken the step to report, because the camps are populated massively.

-Did the women who were repatriated today express desire to be repatriated and have been you informed of people still residing in those camps who wish to be repatriated, but this is impossible for the time being due to the difficult situation you already mentioned?

PM Edi Rama: I just provided an answer regarding the second part of this question. As far as the first part of the question is concerned, repatriation certainly is carried out voluntarily and not forcibly, because this is primarily not our goal and forced repatriation is impossible.

Thank you very much!