UK Immigration minister: Albanians shouldn't be allowed into the UK

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: News websites
4 Dec 2022 15:16

Home Secretary Suella Braverman is alleged to be urging PM Rishi Sunak to advocate for action to put illegal migrants into detention on arrival.

Albanian migrants (The Telegraph)

UK Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick said Albanians should be "excluded from the right to claim asylum" on account that they come from a "demonstrably safe" country, adding that current levels of migration into the UK were "unsustainable,"

This comes after a report in The Sunday Times claimed that ministers are devising legislation that could ban asylum seekers who enter by illegal routes from staying in the UK, and Home Secretary Suella Braverman was alleged to be urging PM Rishi Sunak to advocate for action to put illegal migrants into detention on arrival.

Jenrick told GB News: "Albania is a demonstrably safe country. It is very hard to see how an Albanian should be able to successfully claim asylum here in the UK. We have a returns agreement, which was signed a year ago, and a thousand Albanians have gone back already. We are looking at what we can do there", adding: "We are also pursuing the diplomatic channels."

Albanians account for over a third of the 33,000 Channel migrants who arrived in the first nine months of 2022, which Jenrick labeled as the "number one priority".

Sunak held talks with Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama last week, agreeing to close "loopholes" to impede the return of failed asylum seekers, but Rama stated that the UK should stop throwing blame at Albanians in general for the migrant crisis and to "excuse policy failures".

Illegal migration, according to Jenrick, was a potential issue for "many years to come", announcing the mutual understanding that overall levels of people entering the UK were too high. "We can't have a million people entering the country in a single year and net migration of half a million - it's just not sustainable," he said.

The policies on student visas and the number of dependents they can bring while studying or carrying it is one aspect that needed to be looked at, or as Jenrick said, is "ripe for reform".

"What I'm concerned about is there are people coming to universities here as a backdoor way of bringing their families into the UK and staying here for a prolonged period... a very significant number of people use this as a route to a life in the UK. This is a big driver of net migration."

He continued that a reduction in the "huge backlog" in asylum cases is planned, adding a "lighter touch process" could be adopted with those coming from countries for which there are "extremely high grant rates".