TIRANA, June 5 – The issue of immigrants has returned to the attention of the British government. According to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, the conservative government’s plan to stop immigrants, including Albanians who go by raft to Great Britain, is working.
“In December, I reached an agreement with Albania. Because last year, nearly a third of all small boat arrivals were from this safe European country. Now we have returned 1800 immigrants to Albania in just six months. From one in five cases of Albanian asylum seekers, we now have only one in 50. So far this year, the number of Albanian immigrants arriving by raft has dropped by almost 90 percent,” he said.
But immediately after Sunak’s comments, Prime Minister Edi Rama reacted, accusing the British government of political propaganda for the prestigious “Telegraph”.
“The British government cannot break away from propaganda. It is pathetic and invents in bad taste to a drama for political gain. Less than two percent of the total arrivals in Great Britain were from Albania. To keep speaking ill of Albanians is misdeed,” said Rama.
A team of 400 employees has been set up to review in time 17,000 asylum applications from Albanians, most of which are expected to be rejected. /argumentum.al