Most Albanian asylum seekers granted UK visas are trafficked women

People who've lived in areas with high immigration levels have a far more nuanced understanding, ime. It's complicated - these issues shift and have many variables and local context dependent factors.

Take Pollokshields East, Glasgow. There's traditionally been a fair amount of support there for Pakistani/Asian immigrants, (and a bit of tension, too) but there's more recently a lot of hostility towards recently arrived East Europeans, partly due to massively exacerbated pressure on housing supply, partly due to sharp increases in attacks on women and trafficking.

The simplistic idea that immigration is unfailingly positive is risible. Ignoring the very real issues faced by people at the sharp end helps nobody.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/explainers-63473022

'In 2020, 50 arrived on small boats

In 2021, 800 made the crossing

In 2022, 12,000 have arrived so far

"The rise has been exponential and we think that is in the main due to the fact that Albanian criminal gangs have gained a foothold in the north of France," Clandestine Channel Threat Commander Dan O'Mahoney told the Home Affairs Select Committee last week.

Of this year's Albanian migrants, about 10,000 were single, adult men, he said.
Graphic showing the nationalities of people arriving into the UK by small boat: Albania 2,165; Afghanistan 2,066; Iran 1,723; Iraq 1,573; Syria 1,041; Eritrea 850; Sudan 460; Egypt 305; Vietnam 279; Kuwait 198'

Some information about the source is here:

news.sky.com/story/exponential-rise-in-albanian-migrants-crossing-the-channel-this-year-mps-told-12730745

The population is 2.8M, so let's say 1.4M males, of whom maybe just over 1M are adult males, so 10000 is around 1%. 10000 is in dispute as not having an authoritative source, the "entire male population of Albania" is an overstatement when what's meant is adult males, and the percentage figure is quibbled over as being too high when, if the 10000 figure is correct, it should probably sit slightly below 1%.

Obviously trafficked women need help. But I heard the other day that the recent number of Albanian male arrivals was estimated to be 1-2% of the population of all the men in Albania!

It sounds absurd. I was driving and it was radio and now can’t find a source. I have no idea if this really is true but if it is then that is insane! We really can’t have that.

Reading your post back, can you see why many UK citizens are concerned about such a high influx of Albanian men?

I would 100% support different rules for women + children than men.

Hooksb - can you think of any reason - any reason at all why people in an area “experienced and heavily populated by immigrants” might vote remain?

I’ll give you a clue - demographics.

are you joining the dots yet or would you rather rant about Enoch?

V v good point @Tallisker

And who said anything about changing beyond all recognition overnight? It took over a decade.

I couldn't agree more.

The silencing of those raising concerns about the speed of increase in population by cries of racist and bigot to shut down legitimate questions was awful. People felt they had not been heard for years, so when they were given a voice, they spoke.

This is my lived experience and it is perfectly valid. I worked with vulnerable children and saw the massive rise in numbers of children with complex needs after the 2004 decision by the Blair government to allow unfettered immigration from Eastern European countries. They expected 13,000 and got half a million, and our service could not cope with the rise in demand. The migrants were not doing anything wrong, they moved to Britain to find a better life and better medical care for their children, but the impact on the existing population was not allowed to be discussed. It was a difficult time.

It wasn't all positive.

I’m in London and was a typical remainer through and through for the vote but I can see that my experience is probably different to some in the areas who voted leave due to their lived experience. I’m not keen on stamping out voices as it just drives frustration and people feeling unheard.

Showing the fear-mongering is just that.
That'll do it. Denying people's lived experience. And that's why we have brexit

Yes, it was more nuanced. But nowhere "changes beyond all recognition" overnight,
And it is quite telling that the areas with long term high levels of immigration tend to be pro-migration. Showing the fear-mongering is just that.

Sadly, Brexit and the current incumbents in charge of the U.K. have taken us back about 60s years in attitudes. Enoch Powell would be so proud of Tory leaders and some people on this thread.

This thread shows how easy it is for a politician to throw out a lie, get it repeated by the media, and the public will lap it up.

The highest number of asylum claims in 2022 have from those with Iranian nationality.
The biggest increase, in percentage terms, come from Georgia, then Iraq and Afghanistan.
That's all information publicly available from the Home Office's own data.

Numbers of Albanian claimants have increased in recent years, which is unsurprising considering there has been a political crisis there (Wikipedia even gives a very basic summary - so again, not information hard to find). There's also been a very, very recent "spat" (not trying to minimise) between Albanian and Iran, with the US taking sides.
And these events come on top of the long-standing and well-known issues with women's rights, trafficking religious differences, police brutality (torture), and human rights violations of the minority populations there (e.g. Greek).

Albania may be safe and wonderful for some but not for others. When it's a country where trafficking is a recognised problem choosing to move for a new life elsewhere in the country (or even elsewhere in Europe) isn't always an option.

And the U.K. government claimed for years and years that Ukraine was safe and there was no conflict with Russia, despite the fact about a third of the country has been affected since 2014. The Home Office were still telling Ukrainians from areas like Donbas to just go am live in another part of Ukraine as there was nothing to fear from Putin just a few months before the 2022 events!

No one chooses to risk their life on a dinghy across the channel for the possibility of getting £40pw week! That's definitely not voluntary, economic migration and it's beyond absurd and ludicrous that anyone thinks it is.

I think it's more nuanced. Didn't areas with high existing levels of immigration, like London, vote Remain. But areas with previously low immigration, like Boston Lincs, which were suddenly receiving large numbers of immigrants, vote Leave?

That's incorrect. It was areas mostly unaffected by migration that voted to Leave with those most affect that voted Remain.
E.g. London and Manchester voted Remain Cornwall and parts of the NE voted Leave
Cardiff voted remain while Valley areas of Wales voted Leave.
And so on.

Most people who live in areas with a high immigrant population are FOR immigration, not against

Not true. It was a major factor in the country voting for Brexit - those who lived in towns and villages changed beyond all recognition by immigration voted in very large numbers to leave.

many do claim asylum in other countries.

On Peston last night they showed info on the numbers.

"Most European countries have way more asylum seekers than the UK, so it's perfectly fair that we take our fair share."

Where do you get those figures from? Admittedly just a quick Google, but from the UNHCR I got a result of the UK being the 4th largest absolute receiver of asylum seekers and genuinely having a massive percentage increase of asylum seekers in 2021 - most other European countries had a net fall. Per head of population we're about midway - 18th.

As a percentage of the EU+EEA+Switzerland, we take 8% of asylum seekers. So per country we're taking more than our fair share, per absolute number we're taking more than our fair share, and per head of population we're about our fair share ...

I'm not sure if anyone's crunched the figures according to current population density.

@orbitalcrisis rubbish

A source for this orbital?

@lollipoprainbow Most people who live in areas with a high immigrant population are FOR immigration, not against. It's those who live in low immigration areas who are afraid of the mythical immigrant who comes to this country just to claim unemployment benefits while simultaneously stealing your job! So, I should think a lot of these 'do-gooders' have been affected!

Apparently most female Albanian applications are on the basis of dv.
My friend told me she was forced to marry her husband because her father saw her wave to him from her window.
Tbf Albania sounded awful from her description.

I think the pp raises a good point what help is in Albania for DV? We deal with DV cases here.

Albania is a safe country with a sophisticated westernised society.

I don’t know the country well, but if so DV agencies should assist as a priority.

Fwiw, I have personal experience of this. I have no conclusions about what we can do, but I thought it might be of interest.
Through a befriending organisation, I helped a young Albanian woman with 2 small children. She had been given a house to live in and a translator for when she met with professionals while her application to remain was processed. She was here because of domestic abuse.
She was very reluctant to meet other Albanians because they are a close knit community and she didn't want her husband to find her.
Eventually she was deported, but we kept In touch for a while. 1st of all, she was in a Dutch town as she had just been left there. A local mayor took them in.
Then she was just outside Rome, where her husband found her and took away her children. After that she did what she had said what she would do in this situation, come back illegally. She was allowed a certain amount of time to make her case again and disappeared. And we have lost touch.
I did meet a friend of hers who had done exactly that.
I feel sad when I think of her. Heaven knows what she is doing.
But it shows how porous our system is.