"Slaves of gangs"/ Home Secretary in Britain: Albanian traffickers use new method to avoid deportation

2026-03-23 22:22:00, Aktualitet CNA

"Slaves of gangs"/ Home Secretary in Britain: Albanian traffickers use

Albanian drug traffickers have claimed to be victims of modern slavery in a bid to avoid deportation. They have filed complaints in immigration courts to block their return to Albania on the grounds that they were “enslaved” by gangs to commit their crimes.

In the last two cases, both drug dealers were allowed to remain in the UK after the high immigration courts ruled that the first-instance courts had made "legal errors", requiring their appeals to be re-examined, The Telegraph writes.

Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary, plans to deport thousands of foreign criminals and rejected asylum seekers before they can use human rights laws to appeal and block their removal.

Officials have identified 25 “safe” countries, including Albania, to which they intend to immediately deport rejected asylum seekers and criminals, before they can file appeals. Mahmood has also announced plans to change modern slavery laws to prevent migrants from making last-minute claims.

Albanians are the fourth most common nationality to claim to be victims of modern slavery, with almost 2,000 referrals last year alone. Court documents show that an Albanian man secured a stay of deportation after arguing he had been a victim of modern slavery. The 30-year-old was smuggled into Britain in 2018 from France with the help of a drug gang.

After leaving Albania in 2014, he spent three and a half years in France and Belgium working for the gang before being brought to Britain to work on a cannabis farm. After police caught him, he claimed he had been forced to work for the gang against his will, claiming he feared for his life if he returned to Albania because he did not have the money to pay off the debt he owed to the people who brought him to the UK.

He won his appeal because an immigration judge ruled that a lower court had failed to properly consider his trafficking claim, especially while he was in continental Europe.

In another case, an Albanian man entered the UK as a 17-year-old in October 2014 and unsuccessfully tried to claim asylum. Four years later, he was convicted of possession of cocaine with intent to supply, as well as possession of false identification documents and driving without insurance. He was sentenced to 40 months in a juvenile institution.

He again sought asylum, arguing to the authorities that he had been a victim of modern slavery, but both applications were rejected. In April 2024, he was convicted again of cocaine possession and the Home Office sought to deport him.

However, he appealed on the grounds that his removal would be in violation of the Refugee Convention and the European Convention on Human Rights. He claimed that he would face punishment upon return to Albania because of his links to crime and that he had been a victim of modern slavery who feared "re-trafficking" if he returned. His case was also sent back for reconsideration by a lower immigration court because of errors in previous decisions. /CNA