Second Report - Asylum and migration: Albania

Albania is a safe country and we have seen little evidence that its citizens should need to seek political asylum in the UK or elsewhere as a result of the actions of its Government. We saw no reason why the UK should routinely accept asylum applications from Albanian citizens, as is the case with many EU countries, other than in specific cases such as those that arise from trafficking.

While claims for political asylum should not normally be entertained, there are unquestionably cases of Albanian citizens being trafficked to the UK, from within Albania or from within other European countries, where appropriate safeguards must be in place before they are returned to Albania. (Paragraph 2) UK asylum system

The Home Office should set out in its response to this Report why up to 51% of asylum claims from Albania were given positive initial grounds decisions up to June 2022 and why that rate was much higher than rates in most comparable European countries.

The Home Office should explain in its response to this Report why the asylum grant rate for Albanian women is so much higher than the grant rate for men. (Paragraph 20) Safe and legal routes

The long-term solution to migration from countries such as Albania where emigration is driven not by oppression or war but by absence of jobs and decent incomes lies in supporting such countries to become wealthier. There is no case for special treatment for Albania in provision of work visas: its citizens are as entitled as any others to apply for those available in the UK. There may, though, be a case for promoting more actively in Albania and elsewhere the provision of short-term work visas in sectors in which the UK needs workers—seasonal agriculture or construction, for example— with the specific aim of enabling some transfer of wealth to countries from which asylum applications should not normally be countenanced but from which substantial numbers of people seek opportunities elsewhere. Such a policy might be an investment to reduce emigration in the longer term from comparatively poor countries that would in turn reduce pressure on asylum systems designed to cope with refugees rather than the economic migrants who will always seek to improve their circumstances.

We invite the Government to respond to the idea of actively promoting in those countries that have qualified unemployed workers in particular sectors time-limited or short-term visas for seasonal work, such as fruit-picking, or in sectors in which the UK lacks workers, such as construction, as a means of dispersing earned wealth to those countries to aid their long-term economic development. (Paragraph 39) Asylum and migration: Albania 21

The increase in the number and proportion of Albanian nationals arriving in the UK in small boats in 2022 was both sharp and unexpected. It is inevitable that it would attract comment from politicians and others as explanations were sought. That comment has, regrettably, seemed sometimes to single out Albania as a unique cause of asylum and migration problems that go far wider than a single country. The Government in particular should take care not to use language that may jeopardise the success of welcome recent agreements with the Government of Albania, including on co-operation over illegal migration and organised crime and on the return of irregular migrants and convicted criminals to Albania. (Paragraph 45) Next steps

The Prime Minister told the House of Commons Liaison Committee in March that around 4,000 cases had been cleared in the three months since he pledged to clear the backlog outstanding at 28 June last year. We invite the Home Office to set out how it plans rapidly to increase that rate of decision-making if it is not to break the Prime Minister’s promise to clear 92,601 cases by the end of 2023.

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.

We recommend that the Government report progress on clearing the asylum backlog to us on a quarterly basis (30 September, 31 December, 30 March and 30 June). The progress reports should include data on: a) the number of pending claims in the backlog (both that to 28 June 2022 and to the nearest available date) including average decision waiting times; b) how recruitment targets for new asylum decision makers are being met, including retention and attrition rates of current staff; and c) what progress is being made against targets to triple the number of weekly asylum decisions, including the number of decisions made each week. (Paragraph 56) 22 Asylum and migration: Albania