TIRANA, Jan. 16, 2022 – Albania’s foreign ministry has called in the UK ambassador to hand over an official protest note following remarks made by UK’s minister in charge of migration, which were called “a verbal lynching” of the Albanian people and “shameful” by Albania’s foreign minister.
Typically such protests are used for countries that Albania has a strong conflict with and not for a Western and NATO ally like the United Kingdom.
“I’ve been meeting with the fantastic staff who are working around the clock to find the Albanians, to detain them, to put them into coaches to take them to the airport to get them back to Tirana,” UK Home Office Minister Robert Jenrick says in the video as he is visiting a deportation center from where 16 Albanians has just been flown back to Albania.
The unusual tone of the video that raised eyebrows for singling out Albanians as “gaming the system” and “being dangerous criminals” comes at a time the Albanian community in the UK, the vast majority of which is made up of law abiding legal residents and contributors to their host society, reports discrimination and bullying is increasing following intensive British media and political focus on some Albanians using small boats to cross the British Channel in recent months.
“The Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs requests the avoidance of this language of hatred and discrimination and the continuation of dialogue and constructive cooperation to implement the commitments undertaken together as two democratic countries, partners and allies in international organizations,” the ministry said in a statement on Monday.
Albanian Foreign Minister Olta Xhacka did not mince words in her public reaction on Twitter on Sunday: “Shocked beyond words to hear a Minister of State in charge of Immigration use such language for some more miserable votes. A verbal lynching of a whole nation in language that sounds like the Minister is declaring open season on Albanians mere weeks after a Joint Communique of Albania and UK Prime Ministers praised the role of the Albanian diaspora in the UK and its significant contribution to the culture, economy and society of both countries. A shameful singling out of a community from a minister of a great democracy that brings back horrifying memories with an unbearable brutality!”
Albanian social media reaction ranged from anger at “fascist remarks” and calls on the government to end all cooperation on migration with the UK to shame and self-reflection of what a minority of migrants involved in crime are doing to the nation’s reputation as a whole.
Albania had earlier agreed to a five-point plan with the UK that included the stationing of UK border police at the country’s main airport to help stop the flow of potential asylum seekers or irregular migrants.
