Europeans also seek EU asylum

These asylum seekers tend to escape the attention of public opinion and political powers, perhaps because many are minors, but also perhaps because some are perceived as Europeans and as less of an identity threat than their sub-Saharan Africa counterparts.

France was one of the few exceptions to this general lack of interest, since Albanians formed the largest body of asylum seekers in the country last year, forcing the press and politicians to take notice.

Indeed, Albanians represented a significant proportion of Europeans seeking asylum in Europe: in 2017, 22,000 Albanians sought asylum - by far the highest number compared to all other nationalities, whether in absolute terms, or in proportion to the population (almost 1 percent of Albanian citizens sought asylum in the EU last year).

The vast majority of Europeans who seek asylum in the European Union turn to Germany or France. In recent years, however, both countries have adopted an increasingly strict policy, as a result of the spike in applications received (from Europeans too) in 2015.

This led to placing more countries of origin on the list of "safe countries", rapid evaluation procedures with very low acceptance rates, forced repatriation, agreements with origin countries to stem the flow, and threats to reintroduce visas in the Schengen Area.

"In France the authorities now start from the presumption that applications like those from Albanians are bogus, and therefore these asylum seekers are not even offered accommodation. The basic idea is that you shouldn't be too nice with them", said Oliver Peyroux, who studies European immigration in France.

"Absent from all this is reflection on the causes that push these people to leave, and on what can be done to help them," he said.

"But very often basic knowledge is absent. For many French people, for example, the Albanians remain something of a mystery."

It is true that even before the recent tightening of restrictions EU countries rejected the majority of asylum applications originating from European countries.

It is also true that in many cases those seeking asylum are not people faced with specific dangers or threats, but rather economic migrants with few other options for moving abroad.

As the Albanian journalist Fatjona Mejdini confirmed, among her fellow citizens who leave there are many young people and families who cannot find work in their own country.

More applications accepted

Even if authorities tend to consider applications from Europeans as being bogus, the numbers tell a slightly different story.

In 2017, EU countries accepted about 18 percent of these applications, while five years earlier they granted asylum to only 8 percent of those who applied.

The lower rate of rejection certainly is not attributable to any greater generosity on the part of governments, but rather to a reflection of the objective precarity of living conditions in various European countries.

It is not just asylum seekers from Turkey and Ukraine - obviously exposed to very serious danger - who are having more luck with their applications, but also those from almost all the other nationalities.

For example, year-on-year Albanian asylum seekers are accepted more and more often: within the EU as a whole, successful Albanian asylum applications went from 500 to 1,600 in five years.

The reasons for this are primarily linked to dangers such as blood feuds, domestic violence, and discrimination against LGBT people and the Roma community.

As certain media reports have shown, these are very real and concrete dangers - even if the Albanian government and press tend not to speak about them, or deny the specificity of asylum seekers' claims.