Albanian asylum seekers will not be fast-tracked for deportation in Home Office U-turn

The Home Office has admitted that Albanian asylum-seekers cannot be fast-tracked for deportation despite Priti Patel’s promise to “speed up” their removal.

In an abrupt U-turn, Home Office lawyers have conceded that the government cannot fast-track the deportation of Albanians who have claimed asylum in the UK. Instead, the policy will only apply to Albanians who do not claim asylum.

The comments were made in a letter to the refugee charity Care4Calais, who noted: “As virtually all Albanian refugees arriving will seek asylum, this makes the proposed policy insignificant.”

At the end of August, Ms Patel, who was then home secretary, said she had agreed an action plan with her Albanian counterpart to speed up removals.

“Thanks to our excellent levels of co-operation with Albania, we will take every opportunity to speed up removals of Albanians with no right to be in the UK,” she said.

However, Home Office lawyers, writing in a pre-action legal letter to Care4Calais, have now explained that these sped-up removals will be very limited.

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Writing about Albanian arrivals, they said: “Where they claim asylum, they will enter the asylum system in the usual way but where they do not, they will be examined to establish the basis on which they are seeking entry to the UK.”

The letter also conceeds that “migrants who cross the Channel in small boats who are either rescued or directed to land at designated locations by the authorities are no longer deemed to be illegal entrants but arriving passengers.”

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Clare Moseley, founder of Care4Calais, said: “The government’s PR blitz outlined a fast track removal scheme that appeared to deny people from Albania their right to a fair hearing for asylum claims made in the UK.

“The suggestion was that asylum claims made by Albanians are spurious. In fact, recent figures show that 53 per cent of Albanian asylum claims are accepted by the Home Office, demonstrating that for many Albanians their country is not a safe place to live.”

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Jamie Bell, from Duncan Lewis Solicitors, the legal firm representing Care4Calais, added: “We are pleased that the Home Office have confirmed that the proposed Albanian ‘fast-track’ scheme will not apply to Albanian asylum-seekers.”

A spokesperson for the Home Office said: “The Albania fast-track process focuses on removing the growing number of individuals from Albania who have no right to be in the UK.

“This includes failed asylum seekers, foreign national offenders, and individuals overstaying in the UK or seeking to game the system by not claiming asylum.”