Does Albania have a 'British problem' or Britain an 'Albanian problem'?

Alfred Lela

There is a tendency, led by Prime Minister Rama, and accompanied by the attitude of the media and intellectual circles, to say that it is Great Britain that has a problem in the case of the Albanian influx to cross the Channel.

Others preach that it is Albania's problem, which is related to depopulation, economic and social problems, which in turn become demographic drama, and so on.

Even if we choose to look at the problem from the upside-down perspective, despite what our gut feeling says, and accept that it is in fact a 'British problem' and not an Albanian one, it is the conclusions that refute us, or not, despite our desires.

Then, in this line of logic, let's say that yes, it is the broken British migration system that is to blame for what some call a crisis, and others just a picture from the chronicle on the shores of England.

By excusing the Albanian element, both the people who flee and the government that does not create conditions for them, we seem to make the premise of a new question: if it has failed, is it possible for the British system to recover and correct the flaw, from which the very system suffers, currently or temporarily?

All data and probabilities prove that, in fact, Great Britain has the economic opportunity, the knowledge, the legislative experience, and the will to solve the 'Albanian problem', undoing it, at the same time, as a 'British problem'.

The opposite is the case in Albania. Suppose the problem is Albanian, as some insist. In that case, Albania has a much more complex solution to produce, because it cannot close its borders, nor can it properly scan its citizens and their reasons for traveling. The solution that the Albanian government can produce it can not be fast, but medium and long term; it requires anti-migratory policies, which are mainly related to job creation, salary increases, the creation of a suitable social and cultural environment, etc. So, all these conditions, which apparently Albania lacks, Britain fulfills.

This simple logical exercise assures us that the problem, then, is Albanian and not British, and is not solved with aggressive nationalist rhetoric, but with humility, acknowledging that, first of all, we have a problem. Edi Rama does not like to do this, but by using the connections with exponents of the British left, he is using the opportunity to attack the conservative government and the politics of the right.

Not far from this attitude was his siding with George Soros, labeling the Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump, as a "disgrace to civilization".

Knowing this, the problem becomes dually Albanian: not only do we not have the infrastructure to react immediately to a crisis, but we also do not have a government of goodwill that identifies the problem, accepts it, and sets out on the path to a solution.

Quite the opposite: our government ventures to solve a domestic problem with international megalomaniacal North Korean-style.

So wrong.