Even if Britain were to stop illegal Albanian migrants from entering the UK, there would be an “almost infinite” number of migrants looking to take their place, government officials have reportedly lamented.
Ministers within the UK’s Tory party government are reportedly extremely pessimistic on the issue of the English Channel migrant crisis, reportedly suggesting that even if the state is successful in stopping Albanians from making the dangerous crossing, there are a functionally “infinite” number of other migrants willing to take their places on small boats.
Such an assessment of the current situation comes after a record year for illegal channel crossings, with over 45,000 migrants making the trip from France to England in 2022, and an all-time record number of visas issued.
According to reports from last year, a plurality of those making the journey to Britain in small boats are from Albania, with over 10,000 migrants from the country arriving by boat within the first nine months of last year.
However, The Times is now reporting that, even if Britain were to get a handle on the huge number of arrivals from the Muslim-majority nation, ministers believe it to be unlikely that much would change in regard to the English Channel migrant crisis.
“Even if you stopped any more Albanians coming across, the boats would still travel,” an unnamed senior source is reported as telling the publication.
“Their places on the boats would be filled by Somalis, Eritreans or Afghans who can’t afford to pay as much as the Albanians,” they continued. “There is an almost infinite number of people who want to come to the UK.”
Such a statement largely undermines much of the work being done on the issue by the current government helmed by Rishi Sunak, which has largely focused in recent months on deterring Albanians in particular from crossing the channel.
For example, the UK is currently said to be finalising a return agreement with the Albanian government supposedly with the aim of making it easier to deport boat arrivals back to the Muslim-majority state.
There is no guarantee that such a plan will succeed, however, with various legal and logistical issues having previously scuttled a variety of British schemes aimed at getting the ongoing migrant crisis under control.
Efforts to send would-be asylum seekers to Rwanda have largely failed, for instance, with even a recent legal ruling by the country’s high court which found that the scheme is legal failing to get flights to the sub-Saharan country off the ground.
Meanwhile, current efforts to deport a variety of Albanian arrivals have reportedly been scuppered by Britain’s own modern slavery legislation, with many from the country allegedly claiming to be a victim of the practice so as to make it extremely difficult for the UK to deport them.