Greece vs. Albania

Transnational Issues

	Greece	Albania
Disputes - international	Greece and Turkey continue discussions to resolve their complex maritime, air, territorial, and boundary disputes in the Aegean Sea; the mass migration of unemployed Albanians still remains a problem for developed countries, chiefly Greece and Italy	none
Illicit drugs	a gateway to Europe for traffickers smuggling cannabis and heroin from the Middle East and Southwest Asia to the West and precursor chemicals to the East; some South American cocaine transits or is consumed in Greece; money laundering related to drug trafficking and organized crime	active transshipment point for Southwest Asian opiates, hashish, and cannabis transiting the Balkan route and - to a lesser extent - cocaine from South America destined for Western Europe; significant source country for cannabis production; ethnic Albanian narcotrafficking organizations active and expanding in Europe; vulnerable to money laundering associated with regional trafficking in narcotics, arms, contraband, and illegal aliens
Refugees and internally displaced persons	refugees (country of origin): 26,696 (Syria), 17,685 (Afghanistan), 9,614 (Iraq) (2019) stateless persons: 5,557 (2020) note: 1,209,645 estimated refugee and migrant arrivals (January 2015-August 2021); as of the end of December 2020, an estimated 119,700 migrants and refugees were stranded in Greece since 2015-16	stateless persons: 1,031 (2020) note: 11,827 estimated refugee and migrant arrivals (January 2015-January 2021)

Source: CIA Factbook