Stop targeting Albanians to excuse failures, country's PM tells UK

The UK should stop "discriminating" against Albanians to excuse "policy failures", the country's PM has said.

Edi Rama said "rhetoric" that blamed his citizens for the UK's crime and border problems ignored the facts.

Albanians now make up the biggest group of those crossing the Channel, following a big increase in arrivals in the past two years.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman said many of them were "abusing our modern slavery laws".

UK ministers have said they want to "fast-track" Albanian arrivals so their asylum claims are assessed more quickly.

In a Tweet Mr Rama said: "Targeting Albanians (as some shamefully did when fighting for Brexit) as the cause of Britain's crime and border problems makes for easy rhetoric but ignores hard fact.

"Repeating the same things and expecting different results is insane."

He said Albanians in the UK "work hard and pay tax", adding: "[The] UK should fight the crime gangs of all nationalities and stop discriminating [against] Albanians to excuse policy failures."

Mr Rama said he was "ready to work closer" with the UK but "facts" and "mutual respect" were crucial.

Last week, MPs were told 12,000 Albanians had arrived in the UK after crossing Channel so far this year, compared to 50 in 2020.

Of these 10,000 were men - representing 1% of Albania's adult male population.