Foreign Views on Spaç

Human rights violations in Albania, and especially the conditions in which political prisoners were serving their sentences, were also under the attention of the global public opinion. The conditions in the Spaç prison camp, with a population of over 500 political prisoners, were described as particularly harsh in the 1982 Human Rights report prepared and published by the organization 'Amnesty International. (photo)

According to this report, the prisoners worked in shifts of eight hours, six days a week, extracting copper, without any protective clothing. The production targets were described as excessively demanding, and prisoners who were unable to meet these targets would face additional working hours or isolation. The prisoners slept in unheated barracks, with straw mattresses on wooden platforms. The food was scarce and of poor quality. It was necessary to supplement it with packages from the prisoners' families and with food produced in the farms attached to the prison camps, which were bought by the prisoners themselves. The medical care, provided by staff mainly recruited from among the prisoners, was inadequate. 

In the report published in December 1984, the organization 'Amnesty International' expressed concern over the denial of human rights and the restriction of political freedoms. While highlighting the lack of basic social and political freedoms for all Albanians, 'Amnesty International' reported the absence of legal guarantees for political prisoners during investigations and judicial procedures. (photo)