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Shkruar nga Pamfleti
After an accident with his rented car, Dutchman Perry Beenen was detained for days by the Police while on vacation in Albania and had to pay thousands of euros.
Despite Perry's legal assistance, it is unlikely that he will get back the amount paid.
Something goes wrong during Perry and his family's vacation in the Eastern European country. On August 6, they traveled in a rental car to a city of 30,000 people in the south of the country. While Perry was leaving a hotel, he was involved in an accident, where two cars were hit from the side.
"In the Netherlands, we just exchanged damage reports, but here, things were a little different," says Perry, explaining, "the police and the man's family arrived immediately and the road was closed. Using Google Translate, they told me I had to go to the police station. It was supposed to be a formality."
Albanian prison
After arriving at the station, he discovered he was facing charges of causing an accident that injured someone. "Then they told me I would be held for at least 72 hours," Perry recalls.
He confesses that "I had to go to prison and that was the last time I saw my wife before I was released six days later."
"The cell I was in looked like it was from the 1960s, with old dusty blankets and rat droppings in the corner. I couldn't talk to my family and my only contact with the outside world was with my lawyer," he recounts.
After being sent to prison, Perry was ordered to pay numerous costs related to the accident. He had to pay bail and hospital costs for the other driver involved, which totaled approximately 12,000 euros. His wife, Annelies, had to run from ATM to ATM to collect the necessary funds. "Finally, they let me out of prison," Perry says.
Perry now wants to warn others about the dangers of holidays in Albania. “I will never go back,” he says, adding, “It’s an incredibly popular holiday destination, but it’s not part of the European Union. The rules are completely different and people barely speak English.”
It seems Perry is not the first tourist to experience this. The Department of Foreign Affairs recently issued a specific warning about arrests in traffic accidents. The department also warns against aggressive driving and poor road conditions.
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