Squatting in Albania

Squatting in Albania began on a large scale in the 1990s after the fall of communism, with internal migration towards formerly collectivised farmland establishing informal settlements.

Upon the foundation of the People's Socialist Republic of Albania, Enver Hoxha (who was leader of the country from 1945 until his death in 1985), outlawed private land titles.

[4][1] 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.

[5] By the 2000s, there were 127 informal settlements nationwide with most people living on the periphery of Tirana; government officials could take years to contact the squatters and at that point they could be bribed.

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 later visited the site.

There was no response, so on 24 April they blocked the main road and marched on Tirana; the government then pledged to meet all the demands of the squatters regarding better amenities except the one requesting a hospital.

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.