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Thousands of Filipinos work in Albania, woman denounces recruiter scams: A friend of mine disappeared...

2026-01-28 23:31:17Aktualitet SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX

Thousands of Filipinos work in Albania, woman denounces recruiter scams: A

A large and rapidly growing immigrant community is the Philippines. Several thousand are estimated to have arrived in Albania in recent years. In Tirana, a community of them has even established a church where they meet every Sunday.

“Agape International” is their holy place, which serves as a gathering place for Filipinos who are in our country, but also to share their experiences. They talk to each other about the difficulties they have. Most of them are women and girls who work as nannies in wealthy Albanian families, but also in other jobs.

"They also work as cleaners, manual laborers, etc., etc. / it's not an accurate description, at all," said the nanny from the Philippines.

This interviewee also points out some of the problems her compatriots in Albania have. She emphasized that many of them have had difficulties with their employers, who exploit them by breaking recruitment promises, just like people from India.

"Some of my acquaintances, 4 of them have a lot of difficulties. One who lives in Vlora is undocumented. She tells the owner to get her a visa, but he doesn't give her a visa, saying not today, not tomorrow," said the nanny from the Philippines.

The problems that the girls from the Philippines report are very diverse. The most worrying are the cases when they need health treatments.

"A friend of mine who works in Tirana had problems with her teeth. She works every day, she doesn't have a day off. She had her teeth done, she told the owner: give me some time off to recover, she told her, if you want time off, go away, take your belongings. And now she's on the road. She was also paid very little and she buys her own food and everything, while she gets 450-500 thousand lek," said the nanny from the Philippines.

The whistleblower from the Philippines reveals another unfortunate case that requires the pursuit of law enforcement institutions. She says that a friend of hers who attended the same church has been missing for some time and she has not had any contact with her.

"A friend of mine here at the church worked in a place, the owner threw her out on the street. We lost contact with her, we don't know where she is at all. We also lost her location. We don't know where she is," said the nanny from the Philippines.

Labor market experts confirm the issues raised by the whistleblowers. According to them, these are not isolated cases.

"In Albania, there are many cases where companies reduce their costs through inhumane ways of treating workers, especially in terms of accommodation. They do not invest in dignified accommodation, but build silos to have minimal, but not normal, conditions. Entrepreneurship reduces the costs of accommodation," said Erion Muça, an employment expert.

"Working hours and payments. They work long hours, in the summer we had complaints of up to 10 hours without a break. They were not paid for extras, despite the fact that according to the contract they must be paid. Sometimes in the payments, a Filipino and an Albanian cook and the payment was not the same", said Xhina Veizi, a lawyer.

"There are also cases of abuse, since these people, since they have secured accommodation, have rooms with very few meters, 3-4 square meters, many people sleep. The differences are not always in reality. There are also silos in the company, where metals are processed and workers sleep next to them," said Xhina Veizi, lawyer./ Inside Story


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