UK govt tries to defuse Albania migrant row

Britain on Thursday sought to defuse a row with Albania over migrants as Prime Minister Edi Rama doubled down on his criticisms of UK government claims, describing them as like “screams from a madhouse”.

Rama condemned what he called the UK’s “crazy narrative of invaders and gangsters” to distract attention from “totally failed policies on borders and on crime”.

“Albanians in Britain are a great community, great,” he told reporters in Germany after a summit also attended by the UK.

“To single out the community and to talk about gangsters and about criminals doesn’t sound… very British… more like screams from a madhouse,” he added in English.

Britain’s Foreign Secretary James Cleverly held talks with Rama in London on Wednesday and tweeted that they had “an important meeting”.

“We agree that we must break the business model of people smugglers who are putting lives at risk,” he added.

Government minister Graham Stuart on Thursday morning also spoke of Britain’s “gratitude” to Albania for its “cooperation” in tackling the issue.

He praised Albania for sending senior police officers to help speed up the processing of claimants and highlighted an “expedited system” to return failed asylum-seekers.

– ‘Easy rhetoric’ –

Britain’s government is grappling with how to deal with a record number of migrants crossing the Channel from northern Europe in small boats.

Since the beginning of the year, a record 38,000 people have made the perilous journey, the government’s home affairs select committee was told on October 26.

Of those 12,000 were Albanians, compared to only 50 in 2020.

Britain’s right-wing home secretary Suella Braverman earlier this week caused outrage — and earned a rebuke from the new UN rights chief — for describing the arrivals as an “invasion”.

Braverman has previously blamed “Albanian criminals”, alleging that they were gaming the asylum system by falsely claiming to be victims of modern slavery.

Stuart told Sky News on Thursday the urgency of tackling the situation, which has led to huge backlogs in processing applications, sometimes led to “unfortunate” language.

But he added: “It is worth putting on record our gratitude to the Albanian government for their co-operation in working to sort this out.”

Rama had on Wednesday angrily accused Britain of actively “discriminating” against Albanians, saying scapegoating his compatriots “makes for easy rhetoric but ignores hard fact”.

“Albanians in the UK work hard and pay tax. (The) UK should fight the crime gangs of all nationalities and stop discriminating… to excuse policy failures,” he tweeted.

Successive Conservative governments since 2010 have promised to drastically reduce the number of migrants to the UK, despite asylum applications being outstripped by other European countries such as France and Germany.

But it has found “taking back control” of Britain’s borders — a key plank of their Brexit campaign to leave the European Union — harder to implement in reality.

Braverman has also been criticised for allegedly refusing to find accommodation for claimants, many of whom have been kept for weeks in temporary holding centres.

Campaigners are threatening legal action against the government over conditions at the Manston facility.