In September 2022 David Neale reviewed a new Country Policy and Information Note (CPIN) on blood feuds in Albania which was published in September 2022. He found that the evidence in the September 2022 CPIN is “plainly insufficient to justify a departure from EH.”
The Home Office have since published a new CPIN based on the evidence in a Fact Finding Mission (FFM) published online in January 2023. The new CPIN similarly argues for a departure from EH. David Neale has completed a detailed review of the new CPIN and its reliance on the accompanying FFM, and finds that the evidence is still insufficient to justify such a departure.
David finds: “The new CPIN presents a partisan and inaccurate picture of the risks from blood feud in Albania. Its claim that the Albanian authorities now provide a sufficiency of protection against blood feuds is open to doubt. The sources cited do not provide the “strong grounds supported by cogent evidence” required to depart from the Country Guidance case of EH. It would be wholly wrong for cases to be certified as clearly unfounded on this basis.”
For the review of the new 2023 CPIN please click here.
To download David Neale’s previous review of the September 2022 CPIN: Albanian blood feuds: Another unconvincing CPIN – Paper by David Neale (September 2022).