Bern, 23 April – The Daily Telegraph reported in 2024 that every 50th Albanian in the United Kingdom was in prison. This is not particularly surprising when Albania, according to Interpol, Europol and the UN in the field of anti-drugs, continues to be a “black hole” in Europe, writes the Swiss Albanian-language newspaper LeCanton27.ch.
The Albanian ambassador to the United Kingdom, Uran Ferizi, today criticized Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood for her comments in Parliament, where she singled out Albanians when discussing immigration issues. Similarly, in Switzerland, both in parliament and in the media, there is frequent discussion about Albanians in prisons and criminal gangs involved in drug trafficking.
How many Albanians are in prisons in Europe? The figure circulating in Swiss and European media is over 14,000, plus 5,000 in Albania, which totals around 19,000
We say this because hardly a day or week passes without reports or discussions about Albanians, whether in Albania, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, or EU countries, in connection with drug trafficking ranging from 1 kg to 100 kg, or even hundreds of kilograms and sometimes up to 2 tons, as has often happened in Albania and the West. There have also been murders and score-settling between criminal drug trafficking gangs.
If in small Albania we have approximately 1 prisoner per 480 inhabitants (around 5,000 prisoners), then how can one criticize, for example, the UK or Switzerland, which—unlike other communities—rank high in the number of Albanian prisoners?
As the saying goes, “don’t even get into that conversation.” Therefore, the Albanian ambassador in Britain, before pointing the finger at London, should first direct it towards Tirana, towards Edi Rama, who has turned Albania into a “factory” producing criminals.
The British newspaper’s claim that every 50th Albanian in that country is in prison is actually quite low compared to Switzerland, where every 25th Albanian from Albania is reportedly in prison. Among Kosovars, every 735th is in Swiss prisons, while every 200th Serb is imprisoned in Switzerland’s 89 prisons.
Christoph Freymond from the Federal Statistical Office stated today for the Swiss Albanian-language newspaper LeCanton27.ch that in Switzerland’s 89 prisons there are 144 people from Serbia (with 35,934 Serbs living in Switzerland), 147 people from Albania (with 3,680 Albanians in Switzerland), and 204 from Kosovo (with around 150,000 Kosovars).
The ambassador Uran Ferizi, whose first experience in Britain was as an undocumented teenage migrant before later studying mathematics at the University of Oxford four years later, used a letter to The Guardian to raise concerns about what he described as inaccurate reporting of statistics in The Telegraph and other media regarding the level of Albanian involvement in crime in the United Kingdom.
However, he also expanded his criticism, indirectly addressing comments made by politicians of migrant backgrounds, including Mahmood, Suella Braverman and others.
The ambassador compared the “blaming” of Albanians to the experiences of earlier immigrant groups in the United Kingdom.
According to British authorities, “there are currently 700 Albanian families who have applied for asylum and whose applications have been rejected.” Similar discussions exist in France and Belgium, where Albanians are often among the most frequently mentioned asylum seekers, even though such numbers are comparable to countries affected by war.
The Albanian ambassador, regarding these “dark figures,” should he not ask his own prime minister why Albanians are leaving Albania? Or why over 500 Albanian women have married Serbs in Serbia? How is it possible that such a small country, within the last two decades, has been left by over one million people? Even though for Switzerland and EU countries Albania is considered a “safe country,” how is it that a “safe country” fills European prisons with Albanians?
According to the Swiss Albanian-language newspaper LeCanton27.ch, today there are 147 Albanians from Albania in Swiss prisons, around 4,000 in Italy, 1,500 in Germany, 900 in France, 600 in Belgium, 500 in Austria, and other EU countries, as well as around 5,000 in Albania itself. Based on these figures, it is stated that there are over 14,000 Albanians in European prisons today, mainly young people. This is the figure circulating in Swiss and European media. Adding the 5,000 in Albania brings the total to around 19,000.
Therefore, as mentioned above, Edi Rama has turned Albania into a “factory” producing criminals. And quite rightly, a French newspaper Le Monde recently asked: the leader claims that Albania, which began negotiations with Brussels in mid-October, will be “ready in 2028” to join the European Union, despite concerns about its powerful mafia. (Le Monde: Le dirigeant affirme que l’Albanie, qui a commencé les négociations avec Bruxelles mi-octobre, sera « prête en 2028 » à entrer dans l’Union européenne, malgré les inquiétudes que suscite sa puissante mafia.) It has been written at the end by the Swiss Albanian-language newspaper LeCanton27.ch.