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Why did Suella Braverman "target" the Albanians who immigrate to England?

2022-11-02 09:47:56Kosova&Bota SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
Why did Suella Braverman "target" the Albanians who immigrate to
In the photo: Minister of the Interior, Suella Braverman

Albanians have been placed at the center of the ongoing political controversies of the last few days, about refugees who enter the UK illegally. After a Molotov bomb attack on an immigration processing center in Dover, British MPs are questioning how the new government plans to approach the problem of asylum seekers arriving in Britain illegally.

The Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, has recently declared that with her new policies she will end the "invasion" of immigrants arriving on British shores, causing strong reactions for her "harsh language".

And now Albanian refugees are at the center of the debate, fueled by concerns over the conditions migrants face in British processing centres. Although the government regularly asks refugees why they are arriving in Britain, around 76 per cent of all asylum claims are accepted.

Concerns over Albanian migrants began after a statement made by Dan O'Mahoney, head of the English Channel Patrol, during a report in the House of Commons last Wednesday.

He said: " Two years ago, only 50 Albanians arrived in Britain in small boats. Last year this number increased to 800, and from January of this year until now, over 12,000 Albanians have landed, of which about 10,000 are adult and single men. So the growth has been exponential." The official claimed that this happens because Albanian criminal gangs have a "base" in Northern France, significantly facilitating illegal crossings via small boats. O'Mahoney added that the number of Albanians crossing into Great Britain this year is "between 1-2 percent of the entire male population of Albania ".

As for comparison, Albania has a population of 2.81 million inhabitants ( according to the World Bank ). The total number of migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats is currently 39,430 ( the highest since records began in 2018 ).

O'Mahoney also emphasized that "in the country there is a high level of serious and highly organized criminality directed by Albanian criminal gangs".

"In whatever serious forms of criminality you can think of, Albanian criminal gangs are dominant: in drug trafficking, human trafficking, weapons and prostitution. Many of the Albanian immigrants we see arriving in Great Britain do so by small boats, as this is a very successful way of getting here.

"Of course, some of them need our help, but the rate of granting asylum to single Albanian men is quite low. They usually choose not to seek asylum. They stay in a hotel for a few days, and then they disappear without a trace. And they are able to do this because it is facilitated by the way the asylum system works," the British official emphasized.

Priti Patel, Braverman's predecessor as Home Secretary, tried to reach an agreement with the Albanian government in August this year so that those who had arrived in Great Britain could be returned to Albania.

Patel stated at that time: "These Albanian citizens were brought here illegally by organized criminal networks, which have activity in many EU countries. They are buying asylum, and trying to seek asylum in Britain, hoping they can stay here."

Her approach would deprive Albanians of their right to a fair trial on their asylum claims. However, the government's legal department confirmed in September that this program did not apply to Albanians who had applied for asylum in Britain, after refugee charity Care4Calais challenged it at the European Court of Human Rights. The founder of the organization, Clare Moseley, said that 53 percent of Albanian asylum applications are accepted by the Home Office, and this "shows that for many Albanians their country is no longer safe to live in". And yet Braverman again used the Albanians to target the political opponents of the Labor Party.

"If Labor were in power today, they would allow all Albanian criminals into this country, allow all small boats to land in Great Britain, open our borders, and completely undermined the British people's confidence in our control and sovereignty," she said.

Braverman also made specific comments about Albanians at the Conservative Party conference that took place in October. She claimed that Albania was a safe country, adding: "Many of them claim that they were trafficked as modern slaves... The truth is that many of them are not modern slaves and their claims that they were trafficked are lies."

Her comments prompted a review of Home Office guidance on asylum applications from Albanians. Now the new government is trying to propose to the Albanian government a plan to stem this flow of people together, and is working to deport those who arrived in Britain in the last 10 months.

According to "The Telegraph", this includes the possible giving of millions of pounds to Albania to improve its infrastructure. Suella Braverman agrees with Tory MP Lee Anderson that migrants can "get on a dinghy and come straight back to France" if they believe the accommodation in Britain is not good enough.

"Any complaint that the accommodation is not good enough is frankly ungrateful," she added. Conservative MPs, including Lee Anderson and James Daly, have frequently attacked Albanians landing in the UK. Daly told parliament on Monday: "There is no reason for these people to come here. We must follow the example of other European countries, and make sure that they return to Albania immediately".

Anderson also claimed that "Albanian criminals" are coming to Great Britain, after "creating their base in France". But why are Albanians treated differently from other nationalities seeking asylum? Albania is a European country that has applied to join the EU, and is a member of NATO.

Therefore, critics have cast doubt on whether Albanians who leave the country really need asylum. Anyone who leaves their home should be considered an asylum seeker. The organization "Amnesty International" emphasizes that the departure should not necessarily be only due to war, but also persecution, serious violations of human rights and risks to the safety of life.

Other organizations also suggest that asylum seekers can only seek asylum in the first safe country they reach, as defined by the Geneva Convention. For most immigrants who enter the UK through the English Channel, it is assumed that they have been to France first. However, as the refugee charity "Care4Calais" points out, "there is no legal requirement for a refugee to seek asylum in any particular country".

"There is a requirement that the first safe country they arrive at must hear their asylum claim. But if this does not happen for some reason, the refugee is free to make his request for asylum elsewhere", she adds.

Meanwhile, FullFact, a fact-checking organization, points out: "The UN Refugee Convention does not make this requirement for refugees, and case law in Britain supports this interpretation. Refugees can only make a legal claim for asylum in Britain after passing through other 'safe' countries.


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