TIRANA – The situation at the southern border checkpoint of Kakavija is very grave and the queue of vehicles of Albanians traveling to Greece is ‘really long’, which is not the fault of the Greek side but of Albanian citizens, the Defense Minister, Olta Xhacka has said.
Speaking to Ora News TV on Friday evening Xhacka admitted that the situation of the citizens will get worse because of the weather situation. Albania is engulfed by hot weather with temperatures up to 38 degrees Celsius during the day.
“This rush to travel to Greece has come due to some new restrictions starting from August 17. This is not a restrictive decision of Greece; it is a decision taken for all other countries in face of checking the pandemic,” she said.
“We are doing our best, not to change the rules of the Greek side, but to create some possibilities that will facilitate the passage of citizens at the border. This is what we are doing. We are involved with civil emergencies, but this is not a situation created by us, but by the citizens themselves. This situation also increases the premises for getting infected due to staying in groups together, or not being able to meet the basic restriction needs,” said the minister.
Xhaçka added that the requests for increasing tests and extension of working hours from the Greek side are being reviewed by its authorities, and according to her a solution is expected to be found.
“It is a situation for which we can only manage the consequences, as we cannot dictate on the Greek side what to do. What I can say with optimism is that we have had communication at all levels in both countries to increase the capacity of testing because tests have caused the queue and extend working time at the border by the Greek side. These two requests are being considered with a very positive predisposition by the Greek side and we hope that a solution will be found,” said the Defense Minister of Albania. /argumentum.al
