Tirana Police arrested three people for allegedly holding 30 migrants confined against their will.

M.K, a 40-year-old living in Tirana, M.E from Libya, and Z.D from Morocco held 30 migrants from the Middle East hostage threatening to have their families pay a ransom for their transport.

“Law enforcement authorities discovered around 30 people with various nationalities, mainly from the Middle East, at the house of M.K. They were not allowed to go out and were taken away their communication means and threatened their families to pay a ransom in order to transport these people in our country”, the police statement read.

A criminal proceeding was launched for 14 foreign nationals for the illegal border crossing of a state border.

According to official data, some 19,000 migrants were caught in Albania in 2021.

Of these, only 66 were granted asylum,  whereas the rest were processed for deportation.

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