TIRANA, June 18 (Xinhua) -- A total of 2,500 illegal migrants were stopped from January until today while trying to cross the green border of Albania with Greece, according to Albanian state police.
According to the police, more than half of these cases are the same people who, after returning to Greece, re-enter Albania with the hope to travel illegally to Montenegro and then European Union countries.
Meanwhile, at the asylum seekers' center in Babrru, part of the capital city of Tirana district, a total of 1,700 migrants applied for asylum, but the number of approvals is almost 10 times lower.
Migrants use the camp as a safe point to report to the police that they have arrived in Albania for asylum and after being sheltered for several days, they leave for the border with Montenegro.
The rest of migrants who do not seek asylum return to Greece under the Readmission Agreement, but they enter again and there have been cases when a person was banned over 10 times.
Migrants mainly from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and North Africa declared that they paid up to 500 euros to Albanian traffickers to move to Montenegro. But earlier similar Greek traffickers have received another similar payment.
In the meantime, the Albanian police have increased measures and 200 members of the Rapid Intervention Force in Korca, Gjirokastra and Shkodra districts are on the alert to support the border line.
Early this month Albanian border police announced that they have taken additional measures along the border with Greece to stop the illegal migrants whose number has increased significantly.
Moreover, a total of 45 Frontex officers are deployed for the first time in the northern part of Greece at the border with Albania in order to prevent the influx of immigrants.
