‘We fled oppression, not our home’: Albania to Australia and back again
Al Jazeera
As Albanians continue to flock to the West, causing a ‘brain drain’, one family recounts a hair-raising tale of escape – and return.
Pogradec, Albania – Almost every evening during the summer of 1975, Bajram Fezollari’s father, Feridon, would take him on a walk along the banks of Lake Ohrid.
But these were not simply strolls for bonding purposes between a once-distant father who had spent more than a decade behind bars and his teenage son. In reality, the two were on a stealth mission.
On and off for four years, Feridon had been strolling along the Pogradec lakeside, meticulously monitoring how and when the police patrolled the waters and the surrounding area.
He observed how many guards were on duty at any given time, when they would change over, how many lights they would project onto the lake at night, and from what positions.
Then, one night in the summer of 1975, after years of watching and months of planning, the family made their move for freedom from the political persecution they had endured for years.
