Journalism of Courage
The UK recorded a spike in Indians illegally entering the country in small boats across the English Channel last year, with 638 Indians entering the UK this way. While this was a steep jump from previous years’ numbers (67 in 2021 and 64 in 2020), it is still a fraction of the total number of migrants to have entered the UK via small boats, standing at 45,755 according to government data.
Notably, 12,301 Albanian nationals made the journey across the Channel in 2022, more than any other nationality in the world. Albania, which was (wrongly) described by UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak as a “safe, prosperous European country”, has not historically sent in many undocumented migrants to the UK.
In 2022, Albanians accounted for 28 per cent of arrivals in small boats. For context, 8,633 migrants (less than 19 per cent) came via small boats from Afghanistan. India makes up for under 1.5 per cent.
Many of the arrivals from Albania are single, adult men, with the total number representing around 1 per cent of Albania’s working-age men, according to figures from the statistical office of the European Union Eurostat, the BBC reported. These numbers are disputed by the Albanian government.
According to the UK government data, only 50 people arrived via small boats in 2020 with the number rising to 800 in 2021 and a whopping 12,301 in 2022 – 240 times more than in 2020.
A December 2018 Gallup poll suggested at least 60 per cent of all Albanian adults “would like to move out of the country” – the fourth highest proportion in the world after Sierra Leone (71 per cent), Liberia (66 per cent), and Haiti (63 per cent). It is the only European country where over half the population would like to emigrate.
Albania is also one of the poorest countries in Europe. According to data from The World Bank, in 2021, it had a per capita GDP of $6,492.9 compared to the European Union average of $38,411.1 – approximately a sixth of the EU average. The UK’s per capita GDP of $45,510.3 was more than seven times Albania’s. More than half of Albanians were at risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2020, the highest percentage in Europe, according to Eurostat.
This is a major reason behind Albanians’ out-migration. Balkans expert Andi Hoxhaj estimated that around 40 per cent of those leaving Albania do so for “economic opportunities”, reported the BBC. Many other reasons often cited – such as corruption – are directly linked to Albania’s economic situation.
But seeing Albanians as purely economic migrants undermines their claims for asylum, something which most Albanian migrants seek once in the UK. “We’re seen as not credible asylum seekers. People assume we’ve come for a better life. That’s true for some – people are poor, the country is corrupt and full of crime and hate, and there’s no future for young people. But I came because my life was in danger,” an unnamed migrant told The Guardian.
“We cannot fully explain the spike in Albanian crossings, but we know from our research that the reasons are complex and include a mixture of exploitation, cultural blood feuds, sexuality or sexual identity-related, trafficking and organised crime. The situations that have caused them to be exploited, trafficked and persecuted are generated by the dire economic situation and weak institutions and legal structures protecting vulnerable groups in Albania,” Prof Helen Stalford, project lead for a study documenting the experiences of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children from Albania, told The Guardian.
Migration out of Albania pre-dates the spike seen in the UK. Historically, Albanians have migrated to neighbouring countries such as Italy and Greece, but this trend changed after the 2008 financial crisis, which hit these countries very hard. Since then, there has been an ever-growing number of Albanian migrants to northern and western Europe, with France and UK being preferred destinations.
The emergence of the UK as a destination is linked to the workings of organised crime groups across the Channel, in northern France. “The rise has been exponential and we think that is in the main due to the fact that Albanian criminal gangs have gained a foothold in the north of France,” Dan O’Mahoney, former Clandestine Channel Threat Commander, told the Home Affairs Select Committee in 2022.
These criminal enterprises are extremely exploitative towards the people they smuggle. “Criminals target poor people, in villages where nothing works. Once they agree, they’re caught in the hands of the traffickers,” a manager at Shpresa, a charity working with undocumented Albanian migrants, told The Guardian.
Once trafficked, people often have no choice but to work for these organised crime groups to pay off debt. In fact, according to Hoxhaj, many migrants are “lured” to the UK with false promises by these groups and are then made to engage in “illegal activities” such as cannabis farming.
Albanian migrants also have to deal with xenophobia and general distrust from the British public, with asylum applications typically taking a long time. Under the Rishi Sunak regime, this has been further fuelled by incendiary rhetoric from members of the government about migrants and refugees, and new legal deterrents.
“I’ve also negotiated a new deal with Albania, which accounted for a third of all small boat arrivals, and that’s already delivering,” UK Prime Minister Sunak said at a news conference on March 7.
The UK signed a cooperation agreement with Albania in December 2022, which has come down hard on illegal migration from the country. Among other things, this agreement has declared Albania to be a “safe country”, making it much harder for migrants to be granted political asylum, and also raised the threshold someone has to meet to be considered a victim of “modern slavery” – a common basis for asylum claims. Human rights groups have universally slammed this move.
“Albanians have become the latest victims of an ideological project that exposes minorities to negative stereotyping, xenophobia and racism, and all for the sake of concealing its own political failures,” wrote author and academic Lea Ypi for The Guardian.
While the UK’s new laws attack migrants themselves and have already sent hundreds back to Albania (Sunak has promised to send back thousands), those gaining most from the migration — the smugglers and criminal organisations — continue to operate uninhibited.
“We worry that the government is not fighting the criminals but is fighting the people who are being used and abused by criminals,” the Shpresa manager told The Guardian.
