UK-funded security tech network installed to combat criminal gangs in Albania

The equipment includes a fleet of drones and Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras that will allow Albanian systems to recognise British vehicles, which have been used by criminals seeking to avoid detection by the local police.  

The new drones will allow the authorities to track migrants who try to pass through the region via the mountainous areas of Albania, which are otherwise difficult to police. The vehicle cameras will help British and Albanian police work together more closely, searching records on a faster basis and sharing information when a car is suspected of being involved in people smuggling or other criminal behaviour.

Michael Tomlinson, the Minister for Countering Illegal Migration, has visited Albania of late, where he witnessed first-hand the new technology and other ways in which the country is clamping down on people smuggling gangs.

Tomlinson went on to visit the UK’s flagship New Perspectives programme, itself designed to create education, job and business opportunities that will provide a more prosperous future for young Albanian nationals. The Minister also met some of the young people benefiting from the initiative in the northern city of Kukës.

Following on from this, Tomlinson travelled to the Albanian capital of Tirana for a ministerial conference attended by countries from across the Western Balkans region. Together with Albania’s Taulant Balla (Minister of the Interior), they discussed ways of working together more closely in order to address the shared challenge of illegal migration.

These initiatives build on an already successful partnership, which has actively reduced small boat arrivals to the UK from Albania by over 90%.

Global benchmark

Tomlinson explained: “Our partnership with Albania and the work we have done together to ramp up returns is a benchmark for how we want to work with partners globally. Almost no Albanian nationals are now arriving in the UK on a small boat.”

He continued: “We have delivered great results, not just in terms of reducing illegal migration to the UK, but also in helping to provide opportunities for Albanian people to stay and prosper in their home country. Our work to stop the boats doesn’t begin in the English Channel. Rather, it starts at the source.”

The security systems-focused action forms part of a nationwide increase in Home Office activity to tackle illegal migration. Enforcement visits rose by 68% last year and arrests more than doubled, while the returns of individuals with no right to be in the UK increased to 26,000.

Detentions have begun ahead of the first flights to Rwanda. The Government’s Rwanda Plan will deter vulnerable migrants from making perilous journeys across the Channel and ensure those who come to the UK illegally cannot stay.

The Government has also announced a plan to cut the number of migrants that would have come last year to the UK by 300,000 (the largest reduction ever).