Depopulation of the country, 170 thousand apartments in Albania are empty

Monitor published another data from the last Census, according to which 170,000 flats across the country are empty. The figure is as much as 40% of all apartments in Albania, which are counted to be around 431 thousand in total.

The data help to understand the extent to which hundreds of thousands of families have emigrated, but also shed light on the construction industry, which only knows growth, despite the shrinking population. Once again, statistics reveal that investment in construction is mainly dedicated to dirty money coming from abroad.

Until now it was reported that 40 thousand empty apartments were in Tirana alone. Information was obtained from OSHEE about the apartments, which had a contract, but did not pay for electricity.

From the first data of the Census, it was learned that 419 thousand Albanians have left the country in the last 10 years.

According to these results, a total of 2 million 402 thousand 113 inhabitants live in Albania.

Governance, from mockery to propaganda and isolationist laws

The data that prove the departure of almost half a million Albanians in the last 10 years have not been commented on by Prime Minister Rama. However, the government has been forced to recognize the phenomenon that is eroding the economy through the flight of professionals and the lack of labor.

In the first years of power, Rama boasted to Italian businessmen that trade unions did not exist in our country.

A few years later, when hundreds of thousands of Albanians filled asylum seekers' camps in Germany, France, Holland, etc., the prime minister proposed that businessmen import foreign workers.

Emblematic is the advice he gave to the owner of a garment factory in Shkodër, who complained about the lack of workers.

"7 days is the procedure for hiring foreign workers. With this salary you have here, foreign workers from Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and India are safe. You have them pronto, they don't even know Albanian and don't deal with gossip. As soon as they start learning Albanian, start changing because the worm gets into them, not politics, not democracy, you didn't tell me what I told you," he advised the businessman in March 2021.

The statement was made on the eve of the election campaign, when Rama received another government mandate.

In 2023, there seemed to be an attempt to accept reality. In a meeting with businessmen, he asked for an increase in wages for workers in order to stop leaving the country.

"The workforce is not starting to be lacking now," he told the businessmen. We have heard it for a long time: "We have jobs, but we don't have specialists". But now it is "We have jobs, but we don't even have workers". This requires a quick reaction, starting from the salary", he said.

The Prime Minister tries to alleviate the inequality that has reached the extremes in Albania. On the one hand the rich owners, fed with licenses and helped by favorable taxes. On the other side, workers with low wages, who were often forced to work long hours overtime and without paid holidays.

But economic inequality is not the only reason hundreds of thousands of families are moving abroad.

Corruption, health, education and the level of criminality are listed among the most disturbing phenomena. Other countries in the region have similar problems, but the annual Balkan Barometer survey regularly proves that almost half of Albanian families want to leave the country.

When words and propaganda no longer hold water, the government tried to prevent people from fleeing the country by law. He tried this with medical students, who intend to leave abroad after completing their studies. According to the law proposed by the government, after finishing the studies, the diploma was given on the condition that the young doctors worked for several years in Albania.

"Nothing fundamentally changes for the right to exercise the profession because it is done immediately after finishing the studies, but here. For this, the people pay taxes", said Rama at that time.

But the law did not last long. The desire of medical students not to live in Albania was so strong that they protested and appealed the law to the court. The Constitutional Court was right.

Meanwhile, in recent days, permits continue to be granted for the construction of new towers in Tirana, up to 100 stories high. Apartments are usually sold when the building is on its foundations. But who will live in them remains to be seen./Lapsi.al