Recommendation 9

We have focused on Albania because of its unexpected emergence as the source of most people trying to cross the English Channel on small boats and the subsequent interest in why that should have happened so suddenly and unpredictably. Albania is not the cause of the UK’s current migration concerns. It should not be singled out as such or scapegoated for home-grown failure to process asylum applications quickly and to return to their own or other countries those who do not have a right to be in the UK. That said, the substantial number of Albanians arriving across the Channel last year unquestionably contributed to the overwhelming of the asylum system, and particularly to the overcrowding seen at Manston in October. A new focus on faster decision-making for Albanian and all other applicants is welcome, but we need clear evidence soon that the Home Office is getting a grip on a complex, expensive system.