Lee Marsons Published: 20th February 2025 A new report from Public Law Project (PLP) has warned against the “potentially devastating” measures in the Government’s new Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill which will make asylum and human rights claims from Albania inadmissible. Read the report “Albanians are being used as scapegoats,” said PLP senior researcher Lee Marsons, author of “Punishing the Victim: How the UK’s broken asylum system fails the people it should protect.” He argues that these changes ignore the brutal reality of blood feuds, LGBTQ+ persecution, and modern slavery in Albania. “The average successful grant rate for Albanians in 2022 was 49%. Just a year later in 2023, it was 14%. In 2024, it had dropped to an average of 9%. We also know that under the last Government’s Operation BRIDORA, launched in December 2022, there was a secret and probably unlawful target that only 2% of Albanian claims should be granted. “Unless the Albanian state has carried out a miracle in under two years, this suggests that political pressure from all sides has filtered into Home Office decisions. Albanian claims should be fairly considered on their facts, without political interference. “As with Rwanda, new laws and agreements will not magically change the facts on the ground.” The timely report describes the experiences of six Albanians being supported through the UK’s asylum system by Shpresa Programme, a user-led Albanian national organisation, and lawyers at Islington Law Centre’s Migrant and Refugee Children’s Legal Unit (MiCLU): Timi, who is a survivor of life-threatening anti-LGBTQI+ violence and persecution in Albania at the hands of his father and classmates. He struggled to share these traumatic experiences due to lack of support from the Home Office and subsequently attempted suicide twice after his claim was wrongfully refused. Hasan and Gezim, who were trafficked by violent criminal gangs as children to smuggle drugs across international borders. Hasan regularly went without meals for days at a time while in the UK asylum system due to inadequate financial support. Ola, survivor of domestic abuse, who was trafficked to Spain by her abusive ex-boyfriend who forced her to work in a brothel. Ervin and Arber, who are survivors of blood feuds where family dishonour or debt bondage is passed onto male children, often settled by murder and violence. Ola said: “If I wasn’t Albanian and didn’t know what it’s really like, I’d ask why Albanians needed to be protected. If you listen to the media or politicians, Albanians are criminals or thieves and you need to get rid of us. But there’s lots of violence and corruption in my country and we do need help.” Lee Marsons said: “Sadly, Albania has become a proxy in the political fight over the UK’s broken asylum system. But the evidence demonstrates beyond doubt that Albania is unsafe for far too many of its citizens, due to modern slavery and human trafficking, blood feuds, organised crime, political corruption, failing institutions of protection and law enforcement, violence against women and girls, and LGBT+ persecution.” The testimonies of Timi, Hasan, Gezim, Ola, Ervin and Arber have highlighted five of the key problems that people currently face in the UK’s asylum system. These include: difficulty accessing quality legal advice and representation, difficulty making personal and traumatic disclosures, poor Home Office decision-making, inability to meet basic needs due to lack of financial support, and encouraging returns to unsafe countries. Section 59 of the new Border Security Bill would make Albanian asylum claims generally inadmissible, alongside claims from India and Georgia. Section 29, which enables the Home Office to remove modern slavery survivors from the UK if they have been convicted of a crime here, would further punish victims of trafficking who have been coerced into crime. Lee Marsons said: “Both of these potentially devastating changes must be dropped before they put people in real danger of further trafficking, exploitation, and death.” Read the report