April 2024, Shengjin beach, Albania. The sun bakes the sand and the temperature, since the beginning of the month, has been around 30 degrees on average with peaks of up to 35 in the hottest hours. An early summer heat wave. The beach season will start at the end of May, with absolute chaos in July and August. Nevertheless […]
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April 2024, Shengjin Beach, Albania. The sun bakes the sand and the temperature, since the beginning of the month, has been around 30 degrees on average with peaks of up to 35 in the hottest hours. An early summer heat wave. The beach season will start at the end of May, with absolute chaos in July and August. Yet the first lovers of sunbathing, the locals waiting for the invasion of tourists from nearby Kosovo, peep out onto the beach of the renowned tourist resort. A few sunbeds and umbrellas, few bathrooms and 90% of the accommodation facilities still have their shutters down. Causing joyful confusion is a handful of children dressed in i caftans typical of their country, engaged in a game similar to cricket. They are between 5 and 14 years old, the multi-ethnic traits of the complex Afghan puzzle.
These children are part of the hundreds of Afghans hosted since the winter of 2021-22 at the expense of United States in the resorts of the bay, while on the castaways of the Mediterranean brought here from Italy remains a huge question mark. In fact the first, true coexistence between the local community of the region Zadrimawith Lezhe capital of the prefecture, and foreigners fare quite well. We are talking about the thousands of people coming fromAfghanistan arrived in the last two and a half years on flights from Dubai to Tirana every Friday. Family groups in transit to the United States and Canada as part of an agreement linked to the dramatic fall of the government of Kabul and international support Born in August 2021 under the far from irresistible pressure of the Taliban. Since then the United States has been helping them leave the Islamic Emirate to move with their families to North America. First the temporary passage to Albania where you can apply for a visa. It was supposed to be a timed procedure, maximum one year, but in reality it has been going on unabated for years.
The beach is in the shadow of the huge, luxurious tourist complex Rafaelo, between hotels and resorts. Inside the modern buildings there is a courtyard dotted with outdoor swimming pools, pedestrian walkways, well-kept hedges, benches and tables where refugees And tourists (still in the minority, but from June to the end of August there will be thousands) spend the days already sultry. The Executive & Spa is also part of the complex, a 5-star hotel in front of whose entrance a faithful copy of the Statue of Liberty – complete with base – twenty meters high.
Right here we talk to Jailansoftware engineer from Kabul: “I arrived in Shengjin two months ago with my wife and two children and soon the US authorities should grant us a visa to leave for the Virginia, where my cousin lives. We will lean there. It’s good here, the children can play, we are free to go anywhere and we don’t lack anything, but we don’t want to stay in Albania.” For over 30 months the States pay the owner of the resort, with the intermediation of the Albanian government, room and board for the Afghan families, a pocket money Of 50 euros per week for each individual member, various and possible. It is impossible to quantify how many Afghan citizens have passed through here, but just think that on average in Shengjin they are hosted 3-400 people per day and that week after week there are changes. An incalculable amount of money that only countries like the United States and Canada can support: “At the beginning they were all against the presence of refugees from Afghanistan, including the owner of Rafaelo – he tells Ilfattoquotidiano.it an entrepreneur from Shengjin, like everyone in Albania, eager to remain anonymous to avoid consequences – When the US presented the project, he himself asked to extend the agreement. In the end he earns much more with Afghans, twelve months a year, than with tourists who ask for services only a quarter of the time. It has become a business for him and others have asked and are asking to be able to enter.”
Jailan perfected his English during his work with the Born: “I was in charge of computer systems and networks – adds the young father of Tajik ethnicity – The crisis was sudden and in a few weeks we were plunged into a nightmare. Since the end of 2021 I have been trying to leave Afghanistan. I succeeded six months ago. I told the authorities that we were going to Dubai for tourism, but we never returned and never will return, our future is in America. We will be here for three months, others are unable to receive a visa and They’ve been waiting for two years”. Some of them, given the continuation of the wait, have found work in the manufacturing sector fishing and of catering: “Afghans are ok – confides the owner of a pizzeria on the seafront – They are serious at work, respectful and don’t create problems”.
