Relatives of the Karaburun tragedy of January 9, 2004, are very disappointed with Albanian justice, 18 years after 28 people drowned in the Ionian Sea.

While hoping that the case would be solved by Special Prosecution against Organized Crime and Corruption (SPAK), they today protested in front of this high justice institution where they demand the investigation of the case. 

Currently, this file was returned to the Vlora prosecutor's office for incompetence, while the family members did not agree with this action, accusing this institution of corruption. The relatives of the victims demanded the clarification of the case and the sentencing of the perpetrators of the tragedy with 28 victims, mainly from Shkodra, who had set off in search of a better life. 

"We are representatives of the association January 9, I am the chairman. We represent the association of 30 families, where 30 of our children died near the coast in Vlora. Those people were a structured criminal group, consisting of the Vlora police. Josif Shtëmbari has made the analysis of that police and has described those 30 officers as members of the gang. They took them from Shkodra. They stopped the dinghy in the middle of the sea and fired. We seek clarification of the issue. We demand the opening of the case, the Vlora Prosecutor's Office is corrupt, because those who committed the crime have not been investigated. It is a tragedy because no help was given. The state was notified and they said; we are dying here and no search-and-rescue operation was carried out to rescue those people. They left them there to sink. After 18 hours, the Italian ship started the controls. They closed the case so that this criminal group would not come out. We ask the SPAK to clarify the issue, to bring to justice the criminals who killed our children. They left them for 17 hours only 13 km near the shore. We have 8 people missing. How have we found yet," said Nikolle Mehillaj, president of the victims' association.

In the late hours of the night of January 9, 2004, the boat with 36 people on board departed from the Bay of Palas in Vlora to the coast of Italy, but due to strong waves, it suffered a defect in the waters of the Karaburun Peninsula and it sunk. 28 victims were recorded of which 8 bodies are still missing. On the other hand, 8 people managed to survive.