UK to Deport Albanian Criminals More Quickly under New Deal Signed in Tirana

UK Home Secretary Priti Patel has struck a new agreement with Albania to speed up the deportation of the nation’s criminals who have no right to be in the UK, as part of a two-day visit to the Albanian capital Tirana.
Albanians make up the largest number of foreign national offenders in UK prisons.
The new agreement, signed with Albanian Interior Minister Bledar Çuçi on Friday, will strengthen existing arrangements the UK has to remove Albanian nationals who have no right to be in the UK.
This includes failed asylum seekers, foreign national offenders (FNOs), and individuals who have overstayed their visas.
After signing the agreement, Patel said that she was determined to “fix” the UK’s immigration system, clamp down on illegal entry, and remove those with no right to be in UK as swiftly as possible.
“Our New Plan for Immigration, coupled with this new agreement, will speed up the removal of Albanian nationals who have committed crimes in the UK and overstayed their welcome,” she said.
“I make no apology for removing dangerous foreign criminals to protect the British people and, so far this year, more than 1,000 foreign criminals have been deported, with more being removed every single week.”
Whilst in Albania, Patel also met Prime Minister Edi Rama where she welcomed the continued cooperation between the UK and Albania in tackling serious organised crime in the region. They also reaffirmed their shared commitment to cracking down on Western Balkans-based organised crime groups involved in drugs trafficking, illicit finance, and organised immigration crime to the UK.
In February, the UK and Albania signed a new partnership, trade and cooperation agreement that sets out two countries’ ambitions for a future relationship including the strengthening of political, economic, security and cultural ties.
The preferential trading terms the agreement secured will enable British business to trade with Albania as they did before January 1, 2021. Until then, trade between the two countries had been covered by the European Union’s agreement with Albania.
Total trade between the UK and Albania was worth a modest 158 million UK pounds in 2019: primarily services. /argumentum.al