Squatting in Albania

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Albania on the globe
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Squatted building in Tirana, 2018
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An informal settlement at Durrës train station

Squatting in Albania is the occupation of unused land or derelict buildings without the permission of the owner. It began on a large scale in the 1990s, with internal migration towards former collectivised farmland and informal settlements on the periphery of the capital Tirana. Bathore near to Tirana had 40,000 squatters by the early 2000s. The Agency of Legalization, Upgrading, and Integration of Informal Zones and Buildings (ALUIZNI) had legalized 16,500 homes on 152 settlements by 2009. As of 2020, 25% of the population of Albania's cities lived in informal settlements.

History[]

In pre-Communist Albania, respect for private property was enforced and squatting was not tolerated. During the People's Socialist Republic of Albania, Enver Hoxha (who was leader of the country from 1945 until his death in 1985), immediately outlawed private title to land on coming to power.[1] After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Republic of Albania was formed in 1991. The country was in a poor state and public order broke down. A third of all schools were severely damaged and health centres were also attacked, with 65% either being destroyed or squatted.[2] There was a high degree of corruption in the distribution of land and squatter households have been offered land for free in exchange for sending young family members abroad as sex workers.[1] Catholic organisations have bought up land specifically to house Catholic squatters.[1] Refugees from the breakup of Yugoslavia also squatted in Albania throughout the 1990s.[3]

From 1990 onwards, mountain dwellers had been sending family members to squat land and grow wheat on formerly collectivised farms in the plains near Durrës, Lezhë and the capital Tirana.[1] The government could take years to contact the squatters and at that point they could bribe local officials to stave off eviction.[4] There was also internal migration from the poor northern regions to Tirana, with informal settlements being established on its periphery. Between 1989 and 2010, the number of inhabitants of Tirana increased from 300,000 to 650,000. The largest new settlement was on former agricultural land at Bathore, just to the north of Tirana, where the squatters built spacious multi-storey houses.[3]

In April 1995, the government announced that the mountain villagers squatting at Bathore would be evicted. In response, the squatters took the deputy prime minister Tritan Shehu hostage and the government was forced to back down, later claiming Bathore was a model settlement and promising to legalize it.[1] President of the World Bank James Wolfensohn visited the site.[3] By April 2003, the 40,000 squatters were tired of the unmet promises and told the government that if progress was not made by 21 April they would start an insurrection. There was no response, so on 24 April the squatters blocked the main road and marched on Tirana; the government then pledged to meet all ten demands of the squatters except the one requesting a hospital.[1] Squatters from other areas such as the 20,000 inhabitants of Kënet also protested.[1] By 2012, Bathore had paved roads and a public transport link to Tirana.[3]

Squatters have sometimes occupied severely polluted sites, such as a derelict factory in Vlore or the former chemical plant at Porto Romano in Durrës. As of 2002, around 6,000 people were living on the contaminated site at Durrës. Chemicals such as chlorobenzene, chromium 6 and lindane were present at dangerously high levels yet the squatters distrusted officials who warned them and the state had no budget to secure the site.[5] The World Heritage Site Butrint National Park has been looted in periods of instability, so squatters have been tolerated as guardians against theft and poaching.[5]

During the 2005 elections, the Democratic Party proposed legalizing the squatter settlements, following the ideas of Hernando De Soto. Once in power, it gave land titles to squatters, compensated owners of land from pre-Communist times that had been squatted and upgraded settlements. The Agency of Legalization, Upgrading, and Integration of Informal Zones and Buildings (ALUIZNI) was founded and by 2009 it had legalized 16,500 homes on 152 settlements. It had also identified 10,000 homes that were existing in unpermitted areas.[3]

As of 2020, 25% of the population of Albania's cities lived in informal settlements.[6]

References[]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g de Waal, Clarissa (2004). "Post-socialist Property Rights and Wrongs in Albania: An Ethnography of Agrarian Change". Conservation and Society. 2 (1): 19–50. ISSN 0972-4923.
  2. ^ Sewell, David; Wallich, Christine I. Fiscal Decentralization and Intergoernmental Finances in the Republic of Albania. World Bank Publications. pp. 5–6. ISBN 978-0-7161-4194-5.
  3. ^ a b c d e Pojani, Dorina (September 2013). "From Squatter Settlement to Suburb: The Transformation of Bathore, Albania". Housing Studies. 28 (6): 805–821. doi:10.1080/02673037.2013.760031.
  4. ^ de Waal, Clarissa (1998). "FROM LAISSEZ-FAIRE TO ANARCHY IN POST-COMMUNIST ALBANIA". Cambridge Anthropology. 20 (3): 21–44. ISSN 0305-7674.
  5. ^ a b Woodard, Colin (1 November 2002). "Albania: A tale of two cities". Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. 58 (6): 12–14. doi:10.2968/058006004.
  6. ^ Pojani, Dorina; Baar, Kenneth (1 September 2020). "The legitimacy of informal settlements in Balkan States". Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe. 28 (2–3): 135–153. doi:10.1080/25739638.2020.1833563.

Further reading[]

  • Felstehausen, Herman (1999). "URBAN GROWTH AND LAND USE CHANGES IN TIRANA, ALBANIA: WITH CASES DESCRIBING URBAN LAND CLAIMS". Land Tenure Center University of Wisconsin–Madison. Working Paper 31.
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