Albania has the highest number of illegal immigrants to the EU in the Balkans

Over one million Albanians, or 44% of the country's current total population, migrated to EU Member States from 2008 to 2018, making Albania the main country of origin in the Western Balkans for migrants to the European Union.

These are the findings of a report published by the Kosovo European Policy Institute, based on official EUROSTAT data.

1,249,706 Albanians left the country for EU Member States within a decade (2008-2018). This number reaches 44% of the total population of the country in 2019.

Of these, 451,015 Albanian citizens, or 16% of the total population, were found to be illegally present in the EU during this period, more than citizens of all other Western Balkan countries combined.

Albanian citizens were also in the lead, in terms of the Western Balkans region with 170.50 of them, they were denied entry into the EU.

This number, again, exceeds that of the countries in the region, taken together.

Albania's migration numbers in proportion to its population differ from those of Kosovo (30%), Montenegro (6%), Northern Macedonia (12%), Serbia (8%) and Bosnia and Herzegovina (9). %).

As the report's conclusions are based solely on the number of asylum applications, citizens found to be illegally present in the EU and residence permits issued, the current number of migrants may be even higher. Moreover, these numbers do not account for Albanians who have migrated to countries outside the EU, including the US and Canada.

Source: ExitNews, EUROSTAT