Albania delivered a note of protest to the British ambassador after the statements by British immigration Minister Robert Jenrick, regarding Albanian irregular migrants, with the Albanian Foreign Ministry claiming that the British minister used "hateful rhetoric".
Last year, there was a significant increase in the number of Albanians trying to reach British shores in small boats.
Some British politicians say that immigrants from Albania (a candidate country for membership in the European Union and a member of NATO) are not at risk of persecution in their country, but are migrating for economic reasons.
Tirana's diplomatic note came after a video was posted on Facebook on January 13, when Jenrick visited a migrant detention center for deportation. During his visit, the British minister praised the staff there for their work "identifying Albanians, arresting them, putting them on buses, taking them to the airport and sending them back to Tirana."
The Albanian Foreign Ministry statement said that “this rhetoric of hatred and discrimination” should be avoided. “Through this note, the Foreign Ministry expressed its concern about the latest statements with discriminatory rhetoric against Albanians,” the statement stressed.
Albanians made up 42% of people who headed to Britain using small boats between May and September 2022, according to the British government.
In November, albanian prime minister Edi Rama Said that a comment by the british government singling out one community "sounds More like screams from a madhouse."
Rama and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had a telephone conversation in mid-December on the same issue.
Source: APE-MPA
