Cash for Bulgarian passport empties village

Trebisht

TREBISHT in north-eastern Albania looks like a ghost village, emptied of its residents by a rush to get Bulgarian passports that open the door to the European Union.

Arman Kadriu has an Albanian name, but the 12-year-old boy said that he considers himself Bulgarian.

"I don't want to stay here taking care of cows. I want to be a football player," he said, covered in sweat, as he juggled a ball with his feet on a dusty road in the village in the Golo Brdo region.

"In England, with a Bulgarian passport, it's possible," he said, switching languages to say "Dovizhdane!" - goodbye in Bulgarian.

Bulgaria and Albania do not share a border. And non-EU member Albania, where a law on minorities is under consideration, does not count Bulg…