86 foreign children who entered the Albanian territory unaccompanied during the last 3 years are missing. The alarm is given by Child Rights Centre Albania (CRCA) which, while reporting on the situation of child smuggling in Albania, states that no one knows where these children are.

“From 2019 were 8 children, in 2022 were 31 children and in total now we have 86 children missing, it results that the children come to Tirana which is not in accordance with the law and the relevant VKM (Decision of the Council of Ministers) and it results that the institutions are not able to say where these children are and no one knows where they are”, says Altin Hazizaj, from CRCA.

The report concluded that in 3 years, over 2,000 foreign children, accompanied or not, have entered Albania, some of them have left, as Albania is seen only as a transit.

These children are all the time in contact with their families and their smugglers and every time they cross a country, the family pays until they are transported to another country. In 100% of cases, Albania is a transit country to go to EU countries”, says Hazizaj.

What is noticeable is that the smugglers are minors. The children who entered Albania are from 10 countries of the world, while citizens from Iraq, Iran and Syria predominate.