Most Albanian asylum seekers granted UK visas are trafficked women

[IwantToRetire]

Analysis from the Oxford Migration Observatory reveals that 86 per cent of Albanians who received positive decisions on asylum applications in the year ending June 2022 were women, whose leave to remain was granted on the basis that they were likely to have been trafficked and in genuine need of protection.

uk.news.yahoo.com/revealed-most-albanian-asylum-seekers-161018072.html

Just wanted to post this as the main stream media and the politicians are just whipping up hysteria by not reporting statistical facts.

But then its only women so who cares. :(

That trafficked women are being helped should be publicised, I think. It does not change the fact that most 'asylum seekers' are economic migrants and mainly men without women. Obviously, those in need of asylum must be helped but what right has anyone to illegally enter a country just because they think life will be better?

It's not illegal to enter a country and then claim asylum. Everyone has the right to do that and have their claim properly considered.

The point the OP was making was not about immigration in general and male economic migrants, it was about women and trafficking.

The cynic in me fears the “economic value” of a trafficked woman is too high to simply let her seek sanctuary in the UK. Being granted asylum/right to remain is not the same as being released from the bonds of your traffickers.

Yes it is the screaming headlines about the high level of Albanian asylume seekers, and then drifting off into reports on what a good life you can lead in Albania, and inferring it is all single men seeking work.

But even as I posted someone on radio 4 speaking from Albania (not UK media centre) saying it is not only women being trafficked but women suffering domestic violence who cant get support, and (horrifyingly) women fleeing because their husbands cant pay protection money to gangs and she, as the wife, is then raped.

I appreciate its a complicated situation, but in fact the UK has a far lower number that other european countries, and the Government itself must also think so because of the high percentage that then have their claim verified.

Its this false news that the media pump out that means you can never have a proper discussion about anything because people just repeat false headlines.

I was wondering if there is an Albanian women's support group and how to help.

No they’re not, they’re either asylum seekers or being trafficked, men and women both. We just have huge issues in this country in seeing men as victims. Alabamian are often trafficked to work as slaves on cannabis farms or selling drugs. When they are found, they are often arrested, charged and only while in jail awaiting trial does it surface that they were trafficked slaves. Even so, they are still handed down prison terms or released. In both cases the end result is deportation.
Being trafficked isn’t enough alone to get you asylum. You have to prove you genuinely need protection. Most Albanian men don’t have a chance of meeting this second requirement. And it’s not surprising really as even Albanian women with very clear cut cases of trafficking and needing protection are getting their asylum applications denied. The 14% of women denied….I think the majority of those shouldn’t have been denied as there are some really inhumane decisions being handed down resulting in trafficked women being scheduled for deportation. So don’t assume not approved for asylum = economic migrant. That’s patently not the case for men or women on the channel boats.

@Hooverphobe gulp - you are probably right. >:(

10,000 of the recent 12,000 are male

So you’re right women are being granted asylum but men are making up the bulk of the numbers and generally don’t stick around in the hotel after 24 hours

but what right has anyone to illegally enter a country just because they think life will be better?

That's how the Government has designed the system of asylum-seeking. There is no other way of being able to claim asylum other than to enter the UK via an unauthorised route.

This is sadly true. 1/3rd of trafficked women in the U.K. were born in the U.K. Right to live here is no protection from being forced into modern slavery.

“British nationals are now more likely to be lured against their will than any other nationality in the UK, according to the National Referral Mechanism (NRM), the UK’s official system recording potential victims of modern slavery. Government data shows that some 3,560 British men and women (34% of the total) were referred to the NRM in 2020, with Albanian (1,638) and Vietnamese (653) nationals in second and third place, respectively.”
fullerproject.org/story/how-the-uk-became-an-origin-country-for-human-trafficking/

What I don't get is why they try to get to the UK rather than other European countries

Because they’re being trafficked. They’re told their family or they will be killed if they don’t sneak off to be picked up by the gangs trafficking them into slavery.

It’s the same with the 222 children that have gone “missing” from these hotels.

Op I think it’s a big story re men as that is the highest proportion

Why do you say inaccuracies?

What I don't get is why they try to get to the UK rather than other European countries

Because there is no legal requirement for them to seek asylum in the first safe country they get to, so they aim for the UK because they may have family connections here, speak the language, and feel the UK offers the best chance of creating a meaningful life. If I was fleeing a war zone for example I'd want to settle somewhere where I had a basic knowledge of the language and knew there were supportive communities - wouldn't you?

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

If you read the original paragraph I posted it said that 86% of Albanians who were accepted were women.

So the inference by tabloid reporting that we are being flooded by economic migrant Albian males is just to appeal to a reactionary minority in this country.

The other point is that (according to the Guardian) 76% of asylum claims are approved. I know the civil service etc., is in a mess but presumably those failing the asylum claims are the economic migrants who dont qualify. (Even though post Brexit UK businesses are crying out for temporary visas for migrant workers).

There is a totally different discussion to be had about illegal immigration, some of which is probably trafficking of both men and women, but none of us know those statistics by the fact they are illegal ie unregistered.

If think the media and our Home Secretary talking about us being swamped is the problem. And I object to reality of women's suffering being erased.

Who is trafficking all these people in the UK? It says the highest proportion of trafficked people are British nationals, does anyone know where are the gangs doing the trafficking from?

It makes me so cross that students and other young people bang on about how bad historic slavery was and topple statues and get buildings and streets renamed, but don't seem to give a flying fuck about the current modern slavery happening right under their noses. I wish they'd protest about that.

I think pressure needs to be applied to Albania to get the rackets and traffickers prosecuted and given huge prison sentences. Romania has similar problems. It needs to be dealt with in the home countries robustly.

It isn’t just as sex workers, domestic workers , car washes etc all see many trafficked people

For those who want to talk about modern slavery there are statistics in a Salvation Army report

Figures for modern slavery by gender (ie sex) and type of exploitation
www.salvationarmy.org.uk/sites/default/files/resources/2022-10/SA%20Modern%20Slavery%20Report%202022%20FINAL.pdf

Figures for modern slavery by nationality www.salvationarmy.org.uk/sites/default/files/resources/2022-10/SA%20Modern%20Slavery%20Report%202022%20FINAL.pdf

But presumably like illegal migrants these figures only reflect those identified and dont reflect those still caught in this exploitaiton.

There seems to be a disconnect between two figures being repeated across media

One is the figure in your op re the 86% and the other is this

‘Last week at a home affairs select committee hearing, the small boats commander Dan O’Mahoney described an “exponential” rise in small boat arrivals from Albania, with more than 12,000 people this year, including 10,000 single men.’

Both in this article

apple.news/Ad5iBE1X_QfSmWHg86J5tjA

The boats are mostly carrying males atm but that doesn’t mean they have been granted asylum to the extent women have or will be, as they tend not to stay in the hotel for the process.

So the current situation is re males as they are a higher proportion which is not inaccurate.

Working link apple.news/Ad5iBE1X_QfSmWHg86J5tjA

How many of you do gooders posting here have been affected by mass immigration genuine question ??

@IwantToRetire
presumably those failing the asylum claims are the economic migrants who dont qualify

We cannot presume any such thing because of the rampant inhumanity within the Home Office. Read Sara’s story then tell me economic migrant, or asylum seeker?

I’m terrified to go back’: Albanian sex trafficking victim tells of despair as Home Office rejects asylum claim

“Sara* was training to be a lawyer when she was trafficked from Albania and enslaved for sexual exploitation. A year after escaping her captors, she has been denied asylum in the UK. She tells The Independent about her ordeal and why the idea of going back fills her with dread.”
“I was sold as a debt. I wished I was dead,” says Sara*, an Albanian woman in her twenties. “When I came here it was a relief, but I’m terrified to go back. I’m scared I’ll go through the same thing.”
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/dark-realities-of-country-home-office-deems-safe-a8219901.html

There are lots of different contexts here that people may not necessarily understand

For example, if you're working with a teenager and he keeps going missing, mum reports to the police when he is missing but no one really knows where he is, he comes back the following day, then goes again. Mum and school are worried he is involved in gangs or county lines, perhaps he is, perhaps he isnt, there isnt evidence of it and he denies it

Over time time you start worrying that he has clothing on him that mum didnt buy and he hasnt got the money to buy, he starts missing school more. Always staying out late and wont say who his friends are

Part of the safeguarding and risk management of the situation (along with various forms of intervention and direct work) is a NRM referral and it will often come back to say that he is a victim of modern slavery and is being trafficked. Some areas have NRM workers assigned once that occurs, others dont have the resources

So its not the usual understanding of what slavery is.

I don’t think when you get trafficked you get passed a holiday brochure, and your traffickers let you pick out a destination.

And anyway, why do you think the UK should be immune from helping asylum seekers? There’s already countries that do far more.

This is just going to turn into that other thread on asylum seekers isn’t it…

Very few I would think. Those who are the least likely to be affected are the ones shouting loudest for anyone who wants to come can come and be housed and fed. Yes I'm talking to you Lily Allen, Gary Lineker, Banksy et al
If the Albanian government need to get to grips with their trafficking gangs instead of leaving other countries to deal with it