Law for Asylum in Albania and Some EU Regulations on Asylum Issues

• Author: Katrin Treska, Engjëll Likmeta
• Pages: 258-268

European Integration - Realities and Perspectives. Proceedings 2015

258

Law for Asylum in Albania and Some EU Regulations on Asylum Issues

Katrin Treska1, Engjëll Likmeta2

Abstract: This paper aims at treating from a general p oint of view the Albanian legislation on asylum, and to

see the level of approximation with EU legislation in this field, as the asylum has become a controversial

topic because of increasing demands for asylum from citizens of nonmembers states of the European Union.

Because of a relatively new law in Albania, discussions on this topic are scarce. The method used for this

paper is analyzing the current legal provisions on the issue of asylum in the Republic of Albania, the main

regulations of asylum issue in the European Union, in order to see the level of approximation and compliance

of legal rules in Albania with international standards on asylum. As a relatively ne w law, the law on asylum

has a partial approximation with EU directives and is in line with the standards enshrined in the Geneva

Convention, to which the Republic of Albania has acceded. Of course, this paper does not treat this issue in

an exhaustive way, but provides only a general overview of the level of approximation of Albanian legislation

with European Union regulations on asylum.

Keywords: Asylum; EU Directives; Legal provisions; Geneva Convention

1. Origin of Asylum

The origin of asylum comes from the ancient antiquity. Long before the Western democracies defined

who is a refugee and established international organizations to assist people fleeing persecution,

various religions as well as ancient rulers offered asylum in accordance with their set of norms and

beliefs3. (Ezra, 2014, p. 57)

Perhaps the earliest mention of the term ―refugee‖ occurs in the Old Testament, in the first book of

Moses, referring to a person who escaped from a war and sought shelter from Abraham. (Ezra, 2014,

p. 57)

With time, the concept was further developed to include those who killed another by mistake. Thus,

for example, in the fourth book of Moses, God commanded Joshua to build three cities of refuge to

allow people guilty of unintentional manslaughter to flee from the blood avenger.. (Ezra, 2014, p. 57)

Another way to acquire asylum was to reside in the temple at Jerusalem, as it was forbidden to remove

by force any person under the protection of the deity. Unlike the word ―refugee‖, which meant that the

1 PhD Candidate, Law Drafting and Analysis Departement, General Directorate of Codification, Ministry of Justice, Albania,

Address: Blv. ―Zog I‖, 256 Tirana, Albania, Tel.: +355 4 2230247, Correponding author: trkatrin@hotmail.com.

2 PhD, Lecturer, Criminal Law Department, Faculty of Justice, University of Tirana, Albania, Address: Square "Mother

Teresa", PO Box No. 183, Tirana, Albania, E-mail: likmetaengjell@hotmail.com.

3 http://edoc.ub.uni-muenchen.de/2680/1/Ezra_Esther.pdf, Accessed date 14.02.2014.