The Albanian Helsinki Committee (AHC) has followed continuously the demands, protests and hunger strikes of miners. In the past, AHC has reacted in cases when miners have lost their lives tragically due to difficult conditions that they work in.

AHC considers that miners continue to work in difficult conditions, whereby work protection measures are not effective and have serious consequences for their lives and health. Also, based on their difficult economic situation and the conditions they work in, AHC joins their demands for a status that enables better social protection by the state and dignified financial treatment during labor relations. AHC finds that in the past, there have been cases when promises have been made to miners that have not been kept.

AHC also wishes to draw attention to the fact that in a democratic country, problems are resolved through dialogue and in accordance with the law and the rule of law. Calls for the use of violence by groups of interest not only are in violation of the law, but also do not serve constructive dialogue that should be built with institutions for a just resolution of issues.

AHC calls upon relevant state bodies to give priority to the review of miners’ demands, with the goal being to resolve them even if amendments to current legislation in force were needed.

In this regard, we suggest to state institutions to be more sensible, act transparently, realizing an open, constructive and inclusive dialogue with the miners. The offered solutions in our opinion, should take into consideration and address all the difficult conditions in which miners have worked and continue to work, putting even their lives at risk.