Albanian orphans avoid eviction

AI Index: EUR 11/002/2007

Date: 08 June 2007

Fifteen orphaned Albanian adults are set to be saved from homelessness, after local authorities responded to Amnesty International's (AI) calls not to evict them.

The 15 people, who were orphaned as children, were threatened with eviction from their current home in student residential halls (known as "konvikt") in the town of Korça, south-east Albania. This would have risked the vulnerable group being left on the street.

On 31 May, several Albanian newspapers carried AI's recent press release calling for support for the 15, most of whom are women in their 20s and 30s.

Two days later, the press reported that Korça local authorities had decided to find - and pay for - rented accommodation for the 15. They also agreed to give the group priority when around 80 apartments for the homeless are built and allocated at the end of this year.

However, it appears that the authorities have not yet contacted the 15 people themselves to inform them of these plans, which they learned about only from the press.

AI is encouraged by the signs that Albania plans to provide alternative accommodation for the 15 people. The organization urges the authorities to make this pledge public.

Read more: Fifteen in Korça threatened with eviction and homelessness (press release)

Caption: Man leaves a konvikt in Tirana, Albania