Beqir has just returned home from school. He lives with his parents and his older sister in the vicinity of Cerrik where his school is. Cerrik is a small built town that developed in communist Albania’s 60’s around an oil refinery plant, which today lies abandoned at the entrance of the town. The nearest biggest urban centre is Elbasan, only 15 km away, but it takes almost one hour by car to reach it because of the road conditions. Beqir attends his last year of high school. At his age he should have been graduated, but he skipped one year in 2014, as when 17 he spent several months in Molfetta, a small town close to Bari, Italy.

At home, his father takes care of the family’s small farm: chickens, two cows and other animals, orange and lemon trees, a vegetable garden in front of the house’s porch. They also have a greenhouse full of lettuce and spinach, built by Beqir and his father with the support of IOM office in Tirana.

In the mornings, Beqir’s mother goes to the downtown market to sell fresh vegetables; she is the one who deals more with the greenhouse. Through the reintegration grant, Beqir’s family bought the materials to build the greenhouse and the seeds for the first sowing. The greenhouse gives the family a steady monthly income. It is orderly and carefully kept. He does not have great memories of Molfetta and the period he spent in Italy. He was hosted in a community centre for unaccompanied minors from where he could go out with his peers only a few hours a day. He has not brought anything with him from Italy. The only thing that reminds him of his migration experience is the suitcase, which he departed and returned with.

Beqir’s story is similar to that of many other young Albanians (a large number from the province of Elbasan) who irregularly leave for Italy or other EU countries in search of better life opportunities. Most of the time they do not find what they sought or they hoped to get and come back bearing a sense of failure. IOM is engaged to support them upon their return and also carries out information campaigns throughout Albania promoting channels and procedures for regular migration abroad.

The day is very cold, it has recently rained and our shoes are covered in mud. Inside, the house is warm and there is a good smell of food already prepared for the lunch. It is a modest place, but very well maintained. Beqir, smiles shyly. “IOM’s support helped me to feel more useful at home and more participative to my community”, he says.

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