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The study of the British embassy in Kukes, Braverman warns of a new wave of immigrants

Politiko 2023-06-06 10:47:00

The study of the British embassy in Kukes, Braverman warns of a new wave of

The British Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, has warned of a new wave of Albanian immigrants who are expected to cross the Channel this summer, despite the measures the government has taken to stop them.

Braverman has been handed an internal study, commissioned by the United Kingdom embassy in Tirana, which shows that half of young Albanians want to cross the Channel to Britain this summer, reports "The Telegraph " .

The survey, based on 1,800 households in Kukës, the main area in northern Albania for migrants, showed that half of young people aged 17 to 22 wanted to leave their homeland and come to Britain, despite the dangers of crossing the Channel.

The revelation underscores the seasonal nature of illegal migration by Albanians as the main surge from the country did not materialize last year until June to September, when more than 10,000 of the 12,000 Albanians crossed the Channel in 2022.

It comes after Rishi Sunak and Braverman hailed a 90 percent drop in the number of Albanians arriving in small boats so far this year as evidence that their crackdown on small boats was working. The numbers have fallen from 2,165 in January to June 2022, to 151 in the first five months of 2023.

Braverman told MPs that the government was "not complacent" despite the drop in numbers and would continue to monitor Albanian crossings.

The Home Office has stepped up its crackdown on Albanians in the past two months, setting up a 400-strong unit to fast-track around 17,000 asylum applications. Sunak revealed on Monday that the success rate for Albanians seeking asylum had dropped from nearly one in five (17 percent) to two percent.

Ministers are also targeting a further 20,000 Albanians who have entered the UK illegally, although they admit that 70 to 80 per cent may have escaped on immigration parole.

They have also tightened rules on modern slavery amid allegations that it was used by Albanian migrants to avoid deportation. Since the government raised the threshold for evidence, Sunak said the percentage of claims rejected had almost tripled from 12 percent to 42 percent.

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