Number of Albanian migrants crossing the Channel up 100-fold in a year

Figures rise as people-smuggling gangs offer cheap deals for journeys, with organised crime seeking to bring in recruits for drug operations

Migrants
Between half and 60 per cent of the Channel migrants arriving in small boats are now Albanian Credit: HENRY NICHOLLS/REUTERS

The number of Albanians reaching the UK across the Channel on small boats has increased 100-fold in a year, Home Office figures show.

Officials disclosed up to 6,000 Albanians have arrived in the UK this year after paying people-smugglers to cross the Channel, accounting for a quarter of the record near-24,000 to have reached the UK in 2022.

Between half and 60 per cent of the Channel migrants arriving in small boats are now Albanian including Monday’s record daily total of 1,295.

It comes as Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, struck a deal with the Albanian government to station Albanian police officers at Dover and other ports to question migrants and help fast track their removal back to the Balkan state within “two to three weeks”.

Government officials believe the surge in Albanians is being driven by organised crime seeking to bring over recruits for their drug operations and by family ties with the prospect of work in the UK.

People-smuggling gangs offer cheap deals 

Ruthless people-smuggling gangs are offering cut-price deals for “premium” cross-Channel journeys in smaller boats with discounts also offered for children and disabled migrants, according to government sources.

The number of Channel migrants being crammed onto larger but still unsafe boats has risen from 28 last year to 44 on average so far this year, making the journeys more dangerous. “It is remarkable that we have not had any horrendous incidents this year,” said one source.

Migrants
Up to 6,000 Albanians have arrived in the UK this year, Home Office figures show Credit: STEVE FINN

The number of Albanians using small boats to cross the Channel has increased by nearly 1,000 per cent from 23 detected in the first six months of last year to 2,165 in the six months to June this year.

According to the Home Office data, more than half (51 per cent) of small boat arrivals in the six months to June were from just three nationalities: Albanian (18 per cent), Afghan (18 per cent) and Iranian (15 per cent).

However, the number of Albanians appears to have accelerated over the summer such that an estimated 700 - or 60 per cent - of the daily record of 1,295 migrants who reached the UK on Monday were from the Balkan state. That is treble the rate from earlier in the year.

Expertise in cannabis farming brought to UK

It is understood that serious and organised crime by Albanians is “rising up the security services’ list” of priorities because of the surge in arrivals from the Balkan state.

After gaining a stranglehold over the cocaine market in London and south east of England, Albanian gangs have in the past five years imported expertise gained from industrial-scale cannabis farming in their home country to the UK, according to the National Crime Agency (NCA).

NCA investigators say Albanians have brought a ruthless professionalism to cannabis farming that has displaced the Vietnamese as the main domestically-produced source of the drug.

Up until June, around 94 per cent of the Channel migrants claimed asylum. Of those who had received an initial decision, nearly half (49 per cent) were granted asylum or another type of leave, according to the Home Office data.

For Albanians overall, around 53 per cent were granted asylum although this does not cover the last six months and officials expect it to fall if those arriving across the Channel are shown to be economic migrants.

Albanians have also been accused of exploiting modern slavery laws to avoid deportation by claiming they are victims of trafficking. Albanians accounted for a quarter (27 per cent) of the record 4,171 potential victims of modern slavery referred to the Home Office in the second quarter of this year.

Ms Patel held talks with the Albanian interior minister Bledi Çuçi on Tuesday to work out how they could speed up the deportation of illegal Albanian migrants under a returns agreement she signed with the Balkan state last year.

Immigration officials can hold asylum claimants in fast-track detention for 30 days, meaning they could be deported within weeks. Those that did not claim asylum could be removed within days.

An advertising campaign targeted at Albanians is being launched on Thursday by the Home Office to warn migrants in their own language that they face up to four years in jail and deportation if they enter the UK illegally.

A Home Office review of the Modern Slavery Act, introduced by Theresa May in2015, is expected to raise evidence thresholds to make it harder to lodge a successful case, limit the number of claims and accelerate the process for deporting rejected claimants.

However, Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, warned: “We know directly from extensive work with Albanian refugees that many have been trafficked and are victims of criminal and sexual exploitation. Just because a country is not at war, does not mean that it is safe for all that live there.    

"To pre-judge an asylum claim based on biases about the country of origin of the applicant is totally wrong, and undermining of our asylum determination process that seeks to ensure the opposite - that claims are assessed on their individual merit and the information provided.   

“The fact that over half of Albanians who claim asylum here are given refugee protection by our Government speaks volumes for the clear dangers these people are facing.”

License this content