"We are facing an 'invasion'", British Home Secretary: No Albanians will be accepted as refugees

2022-10-31 21:25:55Aktualitet SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
"We are facing an 'invasion'", British Home Secretary: No
British Home Secretary Suella Braverman

British Home Secretary Suella Braverman said the country faces an "invasion" of people crossing the English Channel by boat, as she reacted to mounting pressure over her repeated safety breaches.

Ms Braverman was reappointed home minister by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak last week, six days after she resigned from the same post over sending a government document from her personal email in breach of rules.

Reacting in parliament to criticism that she had ignored legal advice over the prolonged detention of migrants at an asylum center in southern Britain, Ms Braverman said the current system was "dysfunctional" and "out of control".

"Let's stop pretending they're all refugees in dire straits, the whole country knows that's not true," she said.

Opposition parties and even some members of parliament in the ruling Conservative Party have questioned Ms Braverman's suitability for the job.

On Monday, Ms Braverman admitted to sending official government documents to her personal email address six times, raising fresh concerns about breaches of departmental rules while in charge of homeland security.

She defended her decision to hold thousands of people at a migrant center in Kent after some of her colleagues accused her of deliberately ignoring legal advice to move people from the center to hotels.

Conditions at the center in Manston in Kent were last week described by the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration David Neal as "absolutely deplorable".

The center is supposed to accommodate around 1,500 migrants for less than 24 hours at a time, this figure has since doubled. An Afghan family says they have been there for 32 days.

The Department of the Interior has said that most of the detainees in Manston are Albanians.

In response to the questions before the parliament, Ms. Braverman said that the review process should be accelerated and the "removal of Albanian citizens" should be carried out.

In response to a comment by Conservative MP Craig Mackinlay, who said that "not a single Albanian should be accepted as a refugee", Ms Braverman said he was right.

"Albania is not a war-torn country and it is very difficult to argue that asylum requests are legitimate," she said.

Albanian organized crime groups are believed to be among those mainly responsible for sending migrants across the Channel to Britain from northern Europe.

Citizens from Albania now make up the largest single group crossing the canal in small boats, according to UK government statistics.

The government in London has promised to speed up the departure of Albanians who entered the country illegally.


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