Patel to take on Albanian ‘asylum shoppers’
Home Secretary meets police chiefs from Balkan state as they prepare to station officers in Dover
‘They are trying to claim asylum in the UK in the hope that they can disappear into the criminal underworld’
‘Claims may be inadmissible if someone travels through a safe third country before reaching the UK’
PRITI PATEL has attacked “asylum shopping” by Albanians seeking to sneak into Britain to join crime gangs, as she unveiled plans to halt a surge in Channel migrants from the Balkan state.
The Home Secretary announced new “joint ways of working” by UK and Albanian police officers on each others’ borders to identify those with criminal records and fast-track the deportation of those who enter illegally.
Ms Patel, who met Albanian police chiefs in London yesterday to discuss the plan in detail, said it would mean UK and Albanian law enforcement officers working side by side in both countries to process arrivals, check criminal databases and share intelligence.
It is understood Albanian police officers will be stationed in Dover to crossreference migrants’ fingerprints and biometric data with Albanian criminal databases while the team of six National Crime Agency (NCA) officers already based in Tirana to tackle immigration and organised crime will be beefed up.
It was also agreed for the countries’ law enforcement agencies to share forensic and biometric data to clamp down on anyone seeking to enter the UK with a criminal record in Albania.
It follows the arrival of an estimated 6,000 Albanians in small boats across the Channel so far this year. They now account for 50 to 60 per cent of all Channel migrants, whose total this year passed 25,000 this weekend.
“It is shameful and absurd that so many Albanian nationals are entering the UK via small boats when their home country, Albania, is safe,” said Ms Patel.
“These Albanian nationals are brought here illegally by organised criminal networks travelling through multiple EU countries.
“They are asylum shopping, making attempts to claim asylum in the UK in the hope that they can remain here and disappear into the criminal underworld fuelled by Albanian gangs. We will bring this to an end.”
The new joint approach was agreed at the start of two days of meetings between specialists from UK and Albanian law enforcement, intelligence and operational teams to finalise how the joint frontline teams will operate on “both sides of the border”.
They are also working on new “covert and overt” operational tactics to tackle any attempts by the people smugglers to evade the new measures by switching back to other illegal routes into the UK, such as lorries and ferries.
“The visit will address the risk of displacement from small boat to other modes of travel, which criminal gangs are likely to use to evade detection,” said the Home Office.
The move is part of a wider agreement to deport criminals and illegal migrants to Albania struck by Ms Patel last summer. As part of the deal, the UK has spent £1 million on a new police station at Rinas airport in Tirana.
A delegation of four officers from the Albanian state police forensic laboratories also met Home Office officials yes-music terday to discuss UK funding to boost their capacity for DNA analysis and processing data.
Any migrant who has served more than a year in jail can be barred and removed from the UK under post-brexit laws introduced in 2020. The Government also has the power to refuse entry on the grounds of “serious harm, persistent offending or where it is conducive to the public good”.
The Home Office is using the Immigration Act under which asylum claims from Albania can be detained because of there being “no serious risk of persecution”. They have no right of appeal and can be removed within 30 days.
A spokesman said: “Through the Nationality and Borders Act asylum claims may be inadmissible if someone travels through a safe third country before reaching the UK.”