The Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs informs on the case of the Albanian passports blocked in Kakavija and the loss of 100 of them in Greece as it follows:

On February 13th, the passports produced by the ALEAT company were being delivered to Greece packed not in conformity with the regular delivery practices of diplomatic pouches.

Based on this fact, the Greek customs authorities at the Kakavija border crossing point carried out the verification of the case and blocked the package with the passports.

After the verification and the meeting of the representatives of the Consulate General of the Republic of Albania in Ioannina with the Greek customs authorities, the package with Albanian passports was released. The Ministry underlines that the consignment was accompanied by an Authorized Document of the Embassy of the Republic of Albania in Athens, authorizing a “Top Lines” employee to submit applications and withdraw passports and ID cards at the ALEAT Company on behalf of the Albanian Embassy in Athens.

The consignment was delivered from custom authorities to the diplomatic representatives of the Consulate General of the Republic of Albania in Ioannina, who proceeded with the delivery process to the Embassy of the Republic of Albania in Athens.

On his way to deliver the consignment at the Albanian Embassy in Athens, the Consul General of the Republic of Albania in Ioannina, made a stop over at Agion Asomaton Street in the neighborhood of Thisio, Athens, from 22.50 to 00.10, during which time the diplomatic car he was driving, was vandalized and robbed.

The local police was notified at once and all the case proceedings were conducted :
1. Inspection of the environment and of the car;
2. Fingerprints;
3. Reporting of the incident made by the Consul General of the Republic of Albania in Ioannina, Pervin Gjikuria in the police premises.

Immediately, as in the first event, at the border, and in the case of the second event, the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs took immediate preventive measures to avoid such events in the future.

At the same time, the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs has immediately launched investigative and administrative procedures for the disciplinary measures in accordance with the level of violation, for people responsible for carrying out practices not in conformity with rules and laws in force.

The Ministry of Interior, in cooperation with the ALEAT company, has taken measures for the disposal and invalidation of the stolen passports, as well as the commitment to speed up the reproduction procedures and the replacement of these passports.

The Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs has instructed all instances to accept the re-application without any charge from citizens affected by this incident and to issue the new passports with the outmost priority.