Boat migrants ‘taught to exploit slavery law’
ALBANIAN migrants are coached on how to dodge justice by using the UK’s modern slavery laws before they even arrive.
Top intelligence officers say most of those who get here on small boats want to work for criminal gangs or illegally on construction sites.
If police or immigration officers catch them in cannabis factories, the migrants claim they are victims of human trafficking.
This automatically prevents them from being detained and deported – so they can disappear while their claims are investigated.
The National Crime Agency says new arrivals from Albania use “blatant” and “standardised” answers to play the system designed to identify victims of modern slavery, called the National Referral Mechanism.
Albanian gangs control much of the cocaine trade, particularly in London, and are increasingly influential in cannabis distribution, the agency said.
NCA Intelligence Manager Steve Brocklesby said: “The Albanian criminal community will manipulate the National Referral Mechanism in a fairly extensive fashion.
“It is, in many ways, blatant and is something we believe is instilled in them before they arrive in the UK.”
More than 42,000 people have arrived in the UK after crossing the Channel in small boats this year, at least 12,000 of them Albanian.
Home Office chiefs reckon between one to two per cent of the entire adult male population of Albania has come here on small boats.
Intelligence experts say Albanian gangs are building strong relationships with the Kurdish smuggling networks that control the
Channel routes.
And professionals like accountants, lawyers and electricians are coming over to work for gangsters.
Mr Brocklesby added: “In the UK there is a huge and legitimate Albanian community. But within that community we are seeing professional enablers that assist the illegal migration in many ways.
“We see accountants, we see lawyers, we see security people.”
NCA investigators also revealed there has been an “exponential increase” in the smuggling of cash from the UK to Albania, around £200million every year.
“Cash is king” to Albanian criminals as most people don’t have bank accounts and “their main objective is to make money and get it out of the country as soon as possible.
Migrants can make £50 to £100 a day working in the “grey economy” or £1,000 a week on cannabis farms.
Many more are encouraged to follow them when they see their friends or neighbours returning to Albania in sports cars and designer clothing.
Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, inset, vowed that Britain and France will continue the war on smugglers.
He told MPs: “People are trying to abuse our generosity and, in doing so, they are damaging the goodwill towards genuine refugees.”
Meanwhile, a documentary by ITV’s Exposure team this week tells of the 27 migrants who drowned when their dinghy capsized in the Channel nearly a year ago.
The Crossing, available on the ITV Hub, interviews survivors and reveals the identities of the alleged culprits yet to be brought to justice.