Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...

and

Montenegro ) , image_map = Europe-Montenegro.svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Podgorica , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , official_languages = M ...

share a border.

Economic migration

The border between

and

Montenegro ) , image_map = Europe-Montenegro.svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Podgorica , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , official_languages = M ...

is viewed by many

economic migrant An economic migrant is someone who emigrates from one region to another, including crossing international borders, seeking an improved standard of living, because the conditions or job opportunities in the migrant's own region are insufficient. Th ...

s as a route into the prosperous economies of Central and Western Europe. In 2018 entrepreneurial smugglers began to offer a new route into the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

, running from Greece through Albania, Montenegro and Bosnia to Croatia, a member state of the European Union. About 11,000 migrants from Asia and North Africa took this route and registered their arrival within the

in Bosnia in the first half of 2018, compared with 755 migrant arrivals in 2017.

Troop deployment

On 11 July 2018, Montenegro announced that it was deploying regular army troops along the border to stop illegal migrants from entering the country at the Bozaj crossing from Albania, from the Montenegrin city of

Podgorica Podgorica (Cyrillic script, Cyrillic: Подгорица, ; Literal translation, lit. 'under the hill') is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Montenegro, largest city of Montenegro. The city was formerly known as Titograd ...

Barrier

A border fence to block illegal entrants from crossing the border from Albania into Montenegro was proposed in May 2018. In June, Hungary offered to supply of razor-wire fencing to Montenegro. Montenegrin Prime Minister Dusko Markovic denied that his country was considering building a border fence in early July. On 24 July 2018, Hungarian Prime Minister

Viktor Orbán Viktor Mihály Orbán (; born 31 May 1963) is a Hungarian politician who has served as prime minister of Hungary since 2010, previously holding the office from 1998 to 2002. He has presided over Fidesz since 1993, with a brief break between 20 ...

met with Markovic and offered to help Montenegro to build a long fence along the border. Markovic thanked Orban for his offer, but responded that responded that "For now, there are no reasons for that." Vojislav Dragovic, who is Head of the Border Department, has stated that a fence may be necessary because Albanian authorities have failed to abide by the bilateral readmission agreement that obliges them to admit migrants turned back by Montenegro.

Albanian community in Montenegro

Montenegro is also said to be concerned about recent growth of the small Albanian community in Montenegro.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Albania-Montenegro border Human migration International borders