A human rights lawyer has raised the alarm about an "integration crisis" in Britain, after shocking statistics revealed that five Albanians end up in prison in the United Kingdom every day.
Data from the Ministry of Justice showed that 1,865 people from Albania were sent behind bars during the year ending last September.
Speaking about these figures on "People's Channel," David Haigh said: "This is very concerning, of course. As a human rights lawyer, I want detentions and deportations to be carried out fairly and properly. But this is alarming. This is also a good example of an integration crisis."
Haigh added: "If this number is imprisoned, 12 percent of our prisons are foreign, and none of the various procedures that Shabana Mahmood has put in place are working."
Since 2022, Albanians have been responsible for carrying out illegal crossings from northern France to Dover, with many seeking asylum after arriving in Britain. Under former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, several agreements were made with Albania to speed up the deportation of Albanian citizens.
Two years later, according to the Migration Observatory, illegal crossings fell to pre-2019 levels. However, Albanians make up about 9 percent of foreign criminals behind bars in Britain, the highest level for foreign individuals.
The prisoner transfer agreement, established in 2023, was one of the agreements to address overcrowding and the costs of British prisons. Under the rule, any Albanian sentenced to more than four years in prison will be deported to their home country to serve their sentence. However, Haigh emphasized that the agreement "is not worth the paper it's written on," as the process requires approval and foreign states often demand payment to accept convicts.
He added that, even when agreements exist, foreign citizens find reasons not to be deported, and each case must be reviewed individually, creating recurring problems. Haigh called for a full review of policies and procedures, warning that otherwise, Britain may have to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice stated: "This government has increased the deportation of convicted foreigners, with over 8,700 people removed since July 2024, a 32 percent increase compared to the previous 19 months. Furthermore, we are changing the law so that foreign prisoners are deported earlier than ever before."