Press conference by the Prime Minister Edi Rama following arrival of four Albanian children from the Syria’s al-Hawl refugee camp:
Prime Minister Edi Rama: Good afternoon! Thank you very much for coming here! It is certainly for an unusual reason. I am very pleased that we have finalized the first phase of a complicated operation, anyhow successful. Most importantly, we have already laid down the basis for the second phase. Other children have been identified, a good part of contacts have been established and interviews have concluded and I am confident that we will bring the rest of them back to Albania sooner rather than later.
– Mr. Prime Minister, first of all, I would like to congratulate you for repatriating Rasha family and Endri Dumani from the camp, but based on an investigation conducted by A2CNN TV, since our colleague Julian Kasapi has visited the al-Hawl refugee camp earlier, we are informed that many other children and women are still in that camp and the same sources confirm that some of them have attempted to hide and therefore the anti-terror agents have failed in efforts to locate them. What are the next steps to reveal their names and bring them back home?
Second, if I may, in this mission, you describe as difficult and complicated, the Albanian government mission to bring children back, the media has played a key role, the A2CNN TV in particular that has provided accurate location of these children and their families in Syria’s camps via footages and audio interviews. Do you think a thank you message is needed in this case?
PM Edi Rama: No, I am sorry, with all due respect to your work, we haven’t been sitting idly and wait for the media to discover the whereabouts of these people. It is a yearlong effort and we have been closely working with specialized structures in those territories. We have never had the problem of locating their whereabouts. Of course, it is all about complex operations that include entering territories where a series of factors need to be taken into account. You know we have no relations with the Damask regime. Safe-conducts should be issued by them. It is also about preventing surprises that may happen at any moment and this has entailed a special preparation and detailed work from our unit directly tasked with this process. The Head of the Anti-Terror Department has personally travelled and entered that territory for four weeks.
As to the first question, what I would like to say is that removing children from that hell is definitely not like picking them from the kindergarten or from school. It is a complicated process. Some of the parents, who remain radicalized, are involved, the camp’s security guards are involved, as well as other forces that are not the same like the ones with whom one has to talk and discuss ways how to access the territory and the camp without encountering any surprises. It is very complex in its entirety, but I want to reiterate that intense work has been done inside the camp by the unit that has managed to enter there with the presence of our Counter-Terror Director and another officer, along with their escort members. As I already stated earlier today, all this has been made possible thanks to the structure led by General Abass Ibrahim in Lebanon, who has confirmed to me today that the operation will continue. We discussed all the details already available and we now have a complete picture. It is true that some of the children face difficulties, just it is the case of the girl you mentioned in particular, but I don’t want to provide details as it is the details that can compromise the relations we have forged and it is about very fragile relations with all factors.
–Mr. Prime Minister, if I may I want to make a question that goes beyond the today’s event which was definitely important. Commissioner Varlhey reacted via Twitter, while you were on way back home. The Commissioner said he was pleased that Prime Minister welcomes Venice Commission opinion and suggests that it would be prudent to wait it’s delivered before the revote in the Parliament.
PM Edi Rama: I have told the Commissioner in our conversation –always direct, friendly and open conversations – that Parliament is not going to wait even for a single moment because the elections are set to take place on April 25 and in no way can we enter the spiral of an adventure where Ilir Meta is inviting us to plunge into, who doesn’t intend to improve the Electoral Code, but sabotage this process by resorting to anti-majority and anti-parliament extremist position. The Venice Commission is certainly welcome to forward its opinion. That opinion will go through a discussion with all political parties and, of course, given the time at our disposal, and it will remain for us to address then any potential issue arising after the April 25. We have no time to waste and we cannot drop into any adventure, I repeat, because the new election administration bodies, which have already started their work, need to have the electoral law written in black and white and the electoral law implementation takes its time.
Let’s not forget that we have agreed on implementation of biometric identification of voters. Time is extremely tight, if not impossible, but we have no reason not to reject Ilire Meta immediately as soon as the procedure deadline expires, with all this effort that is already an universally-identified effort as the attempt of an alternative leader of a fragmented opposition and of an absolute leader of a degraded party.
– Has the government an action plan on reintegration of the children returning from Syria’s camps?
PM Edi Rama: We have set up a special structure, for some weeks now, because the decision to enter the territory has been taken at the right moment, but, nevertheless, we should have been ready in advance and the structure is ready, not only for these 4 children, but also for the other children we expect to bring back home later, with all the necessary care, with psychologists, teachers, doctors and of course we will cooperate with their relatives. The progress of each child will be monitored and we will work to reintegrate them in social structures step by step, according to the opinion by doctors and psychologists.
– Mr. Prime Minister, you repatriated an adult lady today and you expect to repatriate many other mothers currently residing in that camp. Will these persons be brought to justice given that Jihad movement is severely punishable by law?
PM Edi Rama: It is indisputable that whoever has committed crimes will face justice, but these are issues I am not tasked with. They are individual cases and there are other bodies that have the power and the obligation to provide opinions and pursue legal ways. There are definitely two clearly different categories from each other, even among adults.
– Will the plan to repatriate Albanians from Syria provide for the repatriation of Albanian nationals with citizenship of other countries?
PM Edi Rama: We are pursuing the case of the Albanian citizens only. Beyond that, the situation would have been much more complicated and impossible, as I already stated, because it is not about a single path, but a labyrinth where many factors are involved and where there are many obstacles to overcome. We are pursuing the case of all those who are citizens of the Republic of Albania, be them adults, or children.
– Welcome together with the children! You said that state structures have interviewed and identified all the children there. What is their number and will you appreciate our counterterrorism structure more as, for the first time, it demonstrated that it is on par with other agencies, including, why not, even CIA?
PM Edi Rama: Our counterterrorism structure has shown this more than once, but of course its activity takes place mainly out of the public eye and, thanks God, out of the media eye. Meanwhile, I cannot provide any accurate information, because the identification is being processed by the relevant structures. I told you we are closely working with the structure of General Abass Ibrahim in Lebanon. On the other hand, it is a very delicate category and we cannot provide an accurate figure, not because we don’t have such a figure, but among these children there are some of them whose parents are ready and some others who are unwilling and we don’t to jeopardize their lives.
Thank you!
