This is a House of Commons Committee report, with recommendations to government. The Government has two months to respond.
This is the report summary, read the full report.
More than a quarter of the 45,755 people who crossed the English Channel in small boats to reach the United Kingdom in 2022 came from Albania, and most claimed asylum. Albania is a safe country and we have seen little evidence that its citizens should ordinarily require asylum. There are, though, unquestionably cases of Albanian citizens being trafficked to the UK, whose protection must be guaranteed before they are returned to Albania. Women, in particular, may be disproportionately trafficked and disproportionately at risk on return to Albania, and the Government must be certain of their safety before returns are implemented.
Given its status as an EU candidate country, European Union countries as well as the UK could look at investment opportunities to help stabilise its population. Economic development is the long-term solution to Albania’s emigration crisis and the UK Government should do what it can to aid that, including the recent and welcome doubling of potential foreign investment there.
The United Kingdom is not a unique magnet for people seeking to move from Albania. An estimated 140,000 Albanians reside in the UK, but four times as many live in Greece and about 250,000 in Italy, with hundreds of thousands more living and working across Europe. An estimated 42,000 leave the country each year. The Government must maintain good relations with Albania to ensure that the UK can return to Albania irregular migrants and offenders from UK prisons, and must be aware of the danger of upsetting that relationship.