
An Albanian is going to prison every two days in Britain, according to recent reports from English authorities.
The increase in the number of convicts is linked to the wave of migrants who arrived in small boats in 2022, writes The Telegraph .
In the first three months of the year, 63 Albanians were jailed for a total of 207 years, accounting for 9% of all foreign nationals imprisoned in England and Wales. Many of them are believed to have entered the country illegally to work in the informal economy or for organised crime.
Most of the sentences are related to drug trafficking and theft, but a special case was that of Klevi Pirjan, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of his three-month-old baby.
British authorities say that each prisoner costs over 60,000 pounds a year, while if everyone served their sentence, the cost would reach around 800 million pounds.
According to the National Crime Agency (NCA), young Albanians are attracted to opportunities in the informal economy, working in construction, hospitality, car washes or barbers for around £100 a day.
Among the latest convicts were two Albanian brothers for major cocaine trafficking, a young gun trafficker and a gang of five Albanians who committed massive robberies in the Midlands and the north of England.
The new laws will allow for immediate deportations for foreigners serving sentences of more than 12 months. Under the agreement with Albania, deportation flights to the Balkan country take place almost weekly. Last week, 50 convicted Albanians or rejected asylum seekers were deported with a total sentence of almost 70 years.
Shabana Mahmood, the British Home Secretary, has stated that the government will intensify deportations to restore order and control.