{"id":3526,"date":"2022-12-08T04:12:20","date_gmt":"2022-12-08T04:12:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/savebritain.org\/?p=3526"},"modified":"2022-12-08T04:13:03","modified_gmt":"2022-12-08T04:13:03","slug":"albanian-ambassador-claims-that-migrants-are-innocent-and-just-forced-to-cross-channel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/savebritain.org\/albanian-ambassador-claims-that-migrants-are-innocent-and-just-forced-to-cross-channel\/","title":{"rendered":"<strong>Albanian Ambassador Claims that Migrants are Innocent, and Just FORCED to Cross Channel<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Albanian ambassador to the UK has told MPs that his countrymen are being forced to cross the Channel illegally because they have no other legal options.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Albanians made up 42% of migrants crossing by small boat from May to September this year, with over 11,000 Albanians arriving during that time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ambassador Qirjako Qirko defended the illegal migrants&#8217; actions, but was chastised by Home Affairs committee member Lee Anderson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He repeatedly told MPs that his government has &#8220;no information&#8221; about an increase in Balkan migrants to the UK, and that the Home Office has not provided details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mr Qirko told the committee that Albanian migrants \u201cdon\u2019t have the possibility\u201d to apply for legal migration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pressed on the matter by Mr Anderson, who questioned: \u201cWhy can\u2019t they just visit the country for \u00a328 and then claim asylum?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhy can\u2019t they claim? Why can\u2019t they travel on the plane for \u00a328, ie, on a holiday, then claim asylum?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Responding to the question, Mr Qirko said \u201cI don\u2019t have this information\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Between January and September, 11,241 (35%) of the 33,029 arrivals in the UK were Albanians. This is a significant increase over the 3% recorded for the entire year of 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When asked why the number of Albanians crossing the Channel has risen so dramatically this year, Mr Qirko responded, &#8220;Officially, my embassy, my government&#8230; have no information regarding this number.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He insisted repeatedly that Albania is a &#8220;safe country,&#8221; telling MPs, &#8220;The problem appears to be that the people arriving here&#8230; they pretend to be victims of modern slavery.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When asked if he believed all Albanians arriving were acting, he replied, &#8220;I don&#8217;t know.&#8221;<\/p>\n<!-- wpsso rrssb get buttons: buttons on archive option not enabled -->\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Albanian ambassador to the UK has told MPs that his countrymen are being forced to cross the Channel illegally because they have no other legal options. Albanians made up &#8230; <\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more-container\"><a title=\"Albanian Ambassador Claims that Migrants are Innocent, and Just FORCED to Cross Channel\" class=\"read-more button\" href=\"https:\/\/savebritain.org\/albanian-ambassador-claims-that-migrants-are-innocent-and-just-forced-to-cross-channel\/#more-3526\" aria-label=\"More on Albanian Ambassador Claims that Migrants are Innocent, and Just FORCED to Cross Channel\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3528,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[38,153,99,176],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/savebritain.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3526"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/savebritain.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/savebritain.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savebritain.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savebritain.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3526"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/savebritain.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3526\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3527,"href":"https:\/\/savebritain.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3526\/revisions\/3527"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savebritain.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/savebritain.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savebritain.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savebritain.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}