After 2022 saw unprecedented numbers of Albanians requesting asylum in the UK, the British Home Office started a new advertising campaign on Albanian social media to dissuade migration. Critics called it futile.
The Home Office said Albanian and English Instagram and Facebook ads will warn against unlawful entry.
“If you come to the UK illegally, you face being DETAINED and REMOVED,” one ad says, displaying a police officer.
“PR stunt policies may help the government detract from reality in the short term, but they don’t achieve anything other than wasting more money,” said refugee law expert and Stand For All Director Daniel Sohege.
“That reality is that Albanians seeking asylum in the UK often have very good reasons for doing,” he said. Trafficking thrives in Albania, Europe’s poorest nation. It’s absurd.”
The campaign’s goal is to “make clear the perils” migrants face crossing the Channel in small boats, but the government won’t say how much it’s spending.
Albania is a “safe and prosperous country,” and many Albanians “are travelling through multiple countries to make the journey to the UK” before filing “spurious asylum claims when they arrive,” according to the Home Office.
This assertion is flawed since in 2022, half of Albanian asylum claims were accepted, with more approved on appeal. The majority were women and included sex trafficking, domestic abuse, loan sharks, revenge killings, or organized crime pressure.
13,741 Albanians applied, over 10,000 of them arrived by sea.
People traffickers sold small boat voyages to the UK to Albanians on Facebook and Instagram.
“We are determined to stop the boats, and the campaign, launching in Albania this week, is just one component of the Home Office’s work upstream to help dispel myths about illegal travel to the UK, explain the realities and combat the lies peddled by evil people smugglers who profit from this vile trade,” said immigration minister Robert Jenrick.
Labour termed the Conservative government’s conduct “beggars belief,” while others branded it useless. Similar advertisements last year did not discourage travelers.
Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper claimed the Conservative Party’s “solutions” to the immigration situation failed every time.
“It beggars belief that as Channel crossings continue to rise and the asylum system is in chaos, all the Conservatives can come up with to stop the criminal gangs is an ad campaign,” she added.
“The Tories’ solutions never match the crisis. They’re just fiddling.”
Refugee NGOs are particularly outraged because it perpetuates the notion that refugee travel is unlawful while the UK helped create the Refugee Convention.
Edi Rama, the Albanian prime minister, has likewise criticized British rhetoric and actions against Albanians. He labeled the British political treatment of Albanian migrants “disgraceful” in March.
Unfortunately, this country has singled out our community for politics. He told BBC Radio 4’s Today program that British politics has been shameful.
