According to UK government statistics, around one-third of the nearly 40,000 individuals who have arrived in small boats so far this year are Albanian.
On both sides of the Channel, senior police and immigration officials are concerned about the expanding role of Albanian intermediaries in aiding crossings.
Prime Minister Edi Rama of Albania has accused the United Kingdom of using Albanians as scapegoats to justify its “failed policies” on borders and migration
This summer, according to eyewitnesses, Albanians occupied a portion of the largest migrant camp in the French city of Dunkirk.
And modest hotels near the train station, such as Hotel Bretagne and Le Lion d’Or, have become established staging areas for Albanian migrants: their doors are always locked, there is no staff in sight, and a 24-hour phone number is posted on the glass.
These are some of the locations where Albanian middlemen wait for clients, serving as a vital link with the Iraqi-Kurdish networks that dominate the small boat crossings.
“People are waiting for you in France,” an Albanian guy informed me this summer after arriving in the United Kingdom by tiny boat. “Everyone on the planet knows how to reach England.”
We observe Kevi smoking a cigarette at the window of his second-floor room at Le Lion d’Or from the street outside the Dunkirk station. Twenty-year-old newcomer from Albania, full of nervous excitement for the journey ahead.
After only a few days in this country, he has already found someone to organize his crossing and is awaiting the call to depart.
“The weather is bad,” he declares. We may have to wait an additional two days.
For Albanian citizens like Kevi, traveling to northern France is simple, as they are permitted visa-free entry to the European Union as tourists for up to three months.
The majority arrive by bus or automobile, encouraged by social media advertisements promising assistance from intermediaries on the ground in Brussels, Paris, Calais, or Dunkirk.
We contacted two people smugglers advertising for clients on the video-sharing site TikTok while posing as Albanian migrants.
Both responded within a half-hour with payment alternatives in France or the United Kingdom and directions on how to reach Belgium or France, where a fixer would make contact. The message from both was, “It’s simple.”
Albanian journalist Eraldo Harlicaj told me, “Middlemen contact you, and you simply accept the cheapest price.”
Recently, Eraldo posed as a migrant for the ABC television channel in Albania. According to him, the majority of Albanian intermediaries avoided the main migrant camp in Dunkirk, where Kurdish and other networks exercise authority.
“When we were inside the camp, we saw that the Albanians had no real control; everything was run by Kurds,” Eraldo informed me. “The Kurds were responsible for organizing the camp and transporting individuals to England.”
A senior French official with expertise in this field acknowledged that Albanians are currently acting as mediators between Albanian migrants and Iraqi-Kurdish smuggling groups.
In an off-the-record conversation, he stated that Iraqi-Kurdish networks currently control 80% of small boat operations, but that French authorities are concerned about the possibility of Albanian nationals establishing their independent operations, which could lead to violent conflict between the groups.
The government of the United Kingdom reports that 12,000 Albanians had landed by small boat this year, nearly all of whom were young males traveling alone.
Some localities surrounding the capital of Tirana are losing population in Albania.
Laknas is located on the airline between France and Albania. Passenger aircraft fly over the tranquil town: above the little mosque framed by half-built buildings and shuttered dwellings, and the deserted café.
The shopkeepers congregate on the quiet street to lament their failing businesses.
A couple of cows munch on the grass alongside the quiet main road.
Their owner states, “I have nothing else.” “My children now reside in England.”
According to locals, 70% of the population has already emigrated to the United Kingdom. And departures have continued.
There are now many locations in Albania similar to Laknas.
Economic opportunity continues to be the driving force. Eurostat data from 2018 compared the median household income in Albania (€1,997; £1,744) with that of the United Kingdom (€21,464), where it is 10 times greater.
A month ago, Majlinda’s kid traveled to the United Kingdom with three or four neighborhood mates.
Majlinda is not her true name, and she has requested that we keep her identity confidential. She informed me that her son made it to Dunkirk, but lacked the funds to pay for a ferry passage.
“I was obliged to include my second cousin, who has a British visa and has lived there for 20 years, as a guarantor in England,” she informed me. “It was really difficult for him to board a ship.”
According to her, the relative submitted a photo of her son to the smugglers to identify him.
When the passage was accomplished, the smugglers provided the cousin with the second photo of her son to prove he had reached British land.
Even for individuals without the funds to pay in advance, there are options for crossing.
A migrant from Albania who arrived in the United Kingdom by small boat several months ago told us that Albanian drug gang scouts were operating within the Dunkirk camp.
He agreed to a personal interview in London on the condition that we do not identify him.
He described being approached by recruiters “four or five times.”
He stated, “They offered several things, including that they would pay for the travel and that there would be a job for me [in the United Kingdom], but I was not interested.”
He reckons that the majority of young men he encountered at the Dunkirk camp intended to work for Albanian cannabis and cocaine networks in the United Kingdom.
This estimate has not been confirmed by a government agency or immigration officer. A former Albanian migrant who worked illegally in the United Kingdom for a decade told us that drug gangs promising greater wages attracted away half of the migrant workers from his construction site.
According to Andrea Wilson, deputy director of the National Crime Agency, the illegal drug market in the United Kingdom is a major lure for foreigners.
“We have encountered examples of trafficking and debt bonding,” she informed me. “These people are victims of trafficking and have come to the United Kingdom to work off the expense of their journey. We take modern slavery very seriously.”
She noted, however, that the people-smuggling networks themselves lacked an organized structure.
In contrast to the hierarchical structure of the drug and gun trafficking, which is dominated by a kingpin, organized migration is comprised of loose networks where individuals are connected via social media, which makes it extremely difficult to combat.
Albania has committed to rapidly readmitting its citizens who are denied the right to remain in the United Kingdom and has dispatched personnel to help British border patrol.
However, the country’s prime minister, Edi Rama, informed me that the networks operating in northern France were multinational in character and that his government could only do so much to combat them.
Geographically and politically, the Channel is not the responsibility of the Albanian government, he stated.
It is too simple for the British prime minister to go on television, show his strength, and [refer to] Albania and Albanians when the subject is in the news.
In France, Albanian smuggling networks existed long before small boat crossings began. Decades ago, Albanian middlemen in France and Belgium concealed their countrymen within vehicles destined for the United Kingdom.
Massive British and French investments in enhancing security at ferry ports have made this route more challenging and costly.
The cost of a boat crossing is less than half that of a truck crossing, and social media is filled with testimonials from people who successfully cross. Each fresh arrival encourages others to begin.
Majlinda has spoken with her son since he arrived in the United Kingdom. He is no longer in detention and resides in a hotel.
She stated, “He departed for a better life.” We are now in debt and must make sacrifices to repay the money we have borrowed.
At age 14, Majlinda’s younger son is already planning his vacation.
The waters of the Channel have changed his brother’s story of danger and debt into an attractive possibility.
Every successful crossing tugs at the thoughts of Albanians back home.
