Enabling Employment Opportunities for Asylum Seekers in Albania

As the world steps up the fight to prevent the spread of the pandemic, it is essential to ensure that migrant workers are not unduly disadvantaged. The implementation of migrant workers’ human rights and international labour standards is even more critical during the pandemic with rising levels of xenophobia, violence and harassment, and social tensions. The challenge is to scale up these efforts quickly to support national efforts to ensure migrant workers are not left behind in national COVID-19 responses as countries move beyond the pandemic. According to available statistics it is estimated that 1.6 percent of incoming migrants request asylum in Albania. As per the 2020 EU report, Albania continues to experience a growing influx of irregular migrants, mainly from Greece, who transit through Albania for a few days, on their way to other EU countries. Recently, the number of irregular migrants apprehended in Albania increased by almost 83 percent compared with 2018 (10,557 compared with 5,792). About 30 percent more irregular migrants arrived in the first five months of 2020 than in the same period in 2019, despite the COVID-19 outbreak (3,633 against 2,788). A gradual increase has been noted in the number of arrivals as movement restrictions in Albania were lifted. The nationalities most represented among new arrivals were Syrian, Iraqi, Afghan, Palestinian, and Moroccan. As confirmed by the UNHCR in Albania, there are 120 persons with refugee or temporary protection status residing in Albania out of which 47 are children (20 females) and 73 are adults (26 females). Eighteen asylum seekers are in the process to get a status out of which 4 are children (3 females) and 14 are adults (5 females). The project development objective is to support labour market integration of refugees and asylum seekers in Albania. The project provides institutional capacity development to relevant labour market institutions as well as educational and training institutions so that they are able develop and apply legal and technical tools aimed at labour market integration of end beneficiaries (asylum seekers). These actions intend to reduce the vulnerability of refugees and asylum seekers (particularly women) through advocating for improvements in the legal framework, capacity building of relevant institutions and awareness raising on migrant workers` rights, taking into consideration the crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Project symbol

ALB/20/04/HCR

Admin unit

DWT/CO-Budapest

Start date

01/03/2021

End date

31/12/2021

Total allocation

119989

Total expenditure

Status

Closed

115661

Development Partners

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

Country/Countries

Albania

Outcomes

Outcome 3: Economic, social and environmental transitions for full, productive and freely chosen employment and decent work for all