Albanians make up almost a third of the migrants entering Britain illegally via the English Channel this year. The number has risen to 12,000 from 50 in the previous year, said Dan O’Mahoney of the Home Office in a parliamentary committee.
Of these, 10,000 are single men. That corresponds to 1 to 2 percent of the entire male adult population of the Balkan state, the newspaper “Daily Mail” quoted the officials on Thursday. In total, more than 38,000 people have reached the British coast with small boats in 2022 so far. In 2021 as a whole, there were 28,526.
The increase is exponential, O’Mahoney said. “We believe this is mainly due to Albanian criminal gangs gaining a foothold in northern France and beginning to support a very large number of migrants.” In Great Britain there is constant criticism that French border guards do too little to prevent illegal crossings. O’Mahoney defended the French. So far they have prevented 28,000 attempts and destroyed more than 1,000 boats. That’s twice as much as last year, the official said.
The conservative government is concerned about the high number of migrants entering the country illegally. As a deterrent, it has reached an agreement with Rwanda. In future, migrants are to be handed over to the East African country and apply for asylum there instead of in Great Britain. If the request is granted, they should stay there. Otherwise they face deportation to their countries of origin. The United Nations refugee agency sees the plan as a breach of international law.
