The Dutch government has undertaken some initiatives to stop the illegal immigration of Albanian.

Albania is country with the highest amount of asylum requests in the Netherlands. Early August, several Dutch media reported that the Dutch harbors have seen an increase in the number of Albanians who try to cross the border and enter in Netherlands. About 90% of the illegal immigrants found in Dutch ports are Albanian. So the Dutch police and prosecution declared, that have drafted a report requesting the return of the visa regime for Albanian citizens traveling to the Schengen area countries. The last days the Dutch police in cooperation with the Prosecutor’s Office advised the Government to restore visas regime to all Albanian citizens moving in the Schengen area. This request is confirmed by an internal memo describing the report in question, which has been extended to the government for review, requiring exactly the restoration of the visa regime. The Dutch Police and Prosecutor’s Office seem to think that the best way to counter illegal immigration of Albanian is to restore the obligation to obtain visas so that Albanian citizens cannot enter the Schengen area and the Netherlands freely. On February 27, 2017, the European Council revised the suspension mechanism for visa liberalization agreements, including the one with Albania. In April 2017, Foreign Affairs Minister Bert Koenders visited Tirana to discuss about immigration and the repatriation of Albanian citizens with his Albanian colleague Ditmir Bushati. Koenders announced that the Netherlands will shortly start an information campaign to convince Albanians that applying for asylum in the Netherlands and Europe is useless. But several government officials have denialed this situation, even Minister Bushati and Director-General of the Border and Migration Aida Hajnaj. Today Albanian Foreign Minister, Ditmir Bushati, reacted on Facebook. Bushati commented by saying that the desperate losers of the June 25th elections, have now went delirious with false shouts about the return of visa regime to Albania. “I wish them a quick recovery”, Bushati said. It now remains to be seen, if this request will be accepted by the Netherlands government, which is currently still being formed, decides to adopt the recommendation from the police and public prosecution. Until May this year, around 440 Albanians have requested asylum in the Netherlands. This remains a high number even though it may end up being lower than in 2016. According to data from the Dutch government, in 2016 there were 1,700 Albanian asylum applications, whereas in 2015 there were 1,000. Albanians also use the Netherlands increasingly as a transit country to illegally enter the United Kingdom. Just like the other Western Balkan countries, Albania is considered a safe country of origin, which means that its citizens are in general not eligible for asylum, and will repatriated, if found out to overstay their visa. Repatriated Albanians are not allowed to enter any EU country for two years. Since December 15, 2010, Albanians can travel without a visa to all countries in the Schengen zone. This means that all Albanian citizens with a biometric passport can stay in 22 countries of the EU and four other countries for a maximum period of 90 days within a period of 180 days. The Albanian government in the sense that Albanians were the largest illegal immigrant group in the EU during 201. During last year 20% of the total number of illegal immigrants, were repatriated.