Albania minister: Britain's too soft on deporting our people
SOFT-TOUCH Britain is irresponsibly encouraging Albanian youngsters to try to sneak in to the UK, a senior Albanian minister claimed yesterday.
Rovena Voda, deputy minister of internal affairs, said Britain should act more swiftly to send home unaccompanied under-18s who have asylum claims rejected – as France and Germany do. The failure to do so is making the UK a ‘more attractive’ destination to teenagers, she warned.
She suggested the money Britain would save by no longer having to provide social care for the youngsters could be invested in projects in Albania to encourage teenagers to stay.
Mrs Voda said: ‘These children are not being trafficked to Britain against their will. Most are brought part of the way by their parents and relatives. They do it for economic reasons.
‘It’s hard. Parents believe they are doing their best for their children and giving them more chance in the future, but they are doing significant psychological damage by abandoning them. The children suffer from separation anxiety and there is also a problem with them being sucked into virtual slave labour or crime if they fail to get asylum.
‘The reason so many go to the UK rather than Germany or France or the Netherlands is that those countries do much more to deport them earlier. In Britain this is not the case, and this makes it more attractive to them.
‘If Britain did more to return them more quickly it would help.’
Unaccompanied Albanian children who report to the authorities when they arrive sometimes claim to be escaping from blood feuds to claim asylum. But Mrs Voda said most claims were false.
She added: ‘There is also a problem with parents sending children ahead because they think it will be easier for them to get asylum and the parents will follow. It’s part of a strat-
egy.’ The Albanian government has launched a crackdown on foreign child abandonment and in the last three months has started prosecuting nearly 50 cases of parents who left their children abroad, several en route to the UK. It is also developing a border checking system to monitor all parents or relatives leaving with children to see if they fail to return with them.
But Mrs Voda warned that a major problem is the false image presented of life in Britain by those living there.
‘Social media is a problem. People like to show off on it and it encourages teenagers to go. They think it will be this amazing time when it is not like that at all.’
A Home Office spokesman said: ‘ Most Albanian unaccompanied children who claim asylum in the UK are found not to be in need of international protection. We are working to establish a safe and effective way to return those children to their home country, where in many cases they will be able to reunite with their family.’