Albanian Channel migrants are being duped by social media adverts into thinking they can start businesses in the UK, the nation’s ambassador told MPs today.
Qirjako Qirko said he had recently spoken to a bar owner who left Albania thinking he could set up a similar venue in Britain after seeing an advert on TikTok.
He also backed proposals to fast track the repatriation of Albanian migrants who had arrived in Britain claiming to be victims of modern slavery, saying Albania was ‘a safe country’.
Addressing the Home Affairs Selection Committee, he also suggested some people had been ‘pretending’ to be slavery victims after arriving in the UK.
Qirjako Qirko said he had recently spoken to a bar owner who left Albania thinking he could set up a similar venue in Britain after seeing an advert on TikTok
Asked whether Albanians had been arriving in the UK illegally for economic reasons, Mr Qirko said: ‘I have been in contact with some people asking for our embassy services.
‘And some of them explained that yes, we are victims of TikTok and Facebook, we have come here because we thought it was easy to start a business.
‘Yesterday, I was talking to a gentleman from the south of Albania. He was running a small bar then he said he saw on TikTok that there was an opportunity to open the same kind of business in the UK. But after three weeks I realised it was not possible so he came back to the UK.’
Asked by committee chair Diana Johnson whether Albanians were arriving in small boats for economic reasons, he replied: ‘Yes, people are coming for the same reason that the Italians, the French and the Germans… to seek better opportunities’.
He said many of the arrivals were young, adding: ‘People have been coming back because they realise the UK isn’t the paradise they thought it was.
‘In general they are youngsters who are very easy to manipulate based on what they see on social media. The reality when they arrive is different.’
There has been a dramatic rise in the number of Albanians crossing the Channel, and they accounted for a third of the 44,000 who made the journey from January to September this year.
Over this period, a total of 3,432 Albanians claimed to be slavery victims – making them the largest nationality using the Modern Slavery Act – with three-quarters of these claims coming from adults.
UK officials, including the National Crime Agency, have repeatedly raised concerns that some migrants are exploiting the system by falsely claiming to be slavery victims in order to stay in the UK while they have their claims processed.
Mr Qirko said today that ‘it seems that the people who are arriving here pretend to be victims of modern slavery’.
Asked by Tory MP Tim Loughton if it would be better if Albanian migrants claiming to be slavery victims were returned to the UK, the ambassador said, ‘yes’, before backing plans for a system to fast track returns.
During today’s session, Mr Qirko rejected a suggestion that Albania should pay for migrants being provided with housing in Britain.
He also refused to comment on a suggestion that the UK should automatically reject all asylum claims from Albania because ‘it’s not my problem’.
Finally, he claimed Albanian children were being bullied in British school and called for the ‘campaign of discrimination’ against his countrymen to stop.
