In the streets behind the Albanian capital Tirana, there is little light and even less hope.
The alleys we’re being guided to are home to some albumthe poorest.
It is here that Enkileta Ferra lives with her children and extended family.
The house is made up of two small rooms where they cook, eat and sleep.
She pointed to a faucet outside where they get water and explained that it usually doesn’t work.
Enkileta’s husband is in prison for stealing metal to make money from the black market, and her children daily rummage through the city’s trash cans for salable cans.
The deprivation in which the family lived was obvious, the despair pervading.
“I want to see my children protected,” Ms. Ferra sobbed. “I don’t want to see them on the street.
“I want to live well, like everyone else. I don’t want them hanging around trash cans and begging.”
The outside faucet usually doesn’t work
A tattoo artist’s dream
Her 16-year-old son, Kledji, showed me around.
It won’t take long, he said – there’s a bedroom for seven.
On the table was a homemade tattoo pen that he had assembled from trash he had collected.
He dreams of becoming a tattoo artist, but most of all he dreams of escaping abroad to countries including the UK, like thousands of others already have.
“Why do you want to come to the UK?” I ask.
“It’s different here. There are jobs there. Everything is better there. Life is different. It’s not like here. It’s very poor here. There’s no work,” he said.
Albania is one of the poorest countries in Europe.
According to data from the German government, 6% of the population is malnourished and 1 in 10 Albanians live in poverty.
It is poverty that is driving migration – both legal and illegal.
More than 12,000 people arrived in the UK on small boats
More than 12,000 Albanians have crossed the English Channel in small boats this year, about 10,000 of them men.
Arber Hajdari, chief executive of the charity Fundjave Ndryshe, said: “Every day we hear that people are trying to migrate abroad.
“A family needs to go to have a better life. A family needs to go to a better school. One needs to go to a better medical center, the other for a better job. They pay three times as much. or four times that in Albania.”
The charity supports about 17,000 families across Albania with food boxes, supplies and shelter.
Its staff regularly hear stories of people paying traffickers to help them get to the UK.
“In my opinion, the problem is the youth. They have a very large community outside of Albania, as well as in the UK, and they are trying to work together,” said Mr. Hajdari.
“For example, people who are living in the UK are inviting their friends there for the salary. They [earn] a lot more money there than here.
“It’s a huge risk and I think the risk has been taken because they can’t get a work visa like normal people.”
Arbër Hajdari
£20,000 to send son to England
In a coffee shop in Tirana, we meet Maria, who has negotiated with smugglers to bring her son to the UK.
That’s not her real name – she changed it to avoid being identified by authorities or traffickers.
She said that she first searched for legitimate routes, but they were all blocked.
Maria says: “I took a different route dealing with some of the people who smuggled people in the dinghy.
Someone asked me for £14,000, then increased to £16,000 and recently up to £20,000….to send my son’s family to the UK, I will have to sell my house, so I will be homeless. housing. “
In the end, she couldn’t afford the fee and on this occasion the trip was cancelled.
Others we met who have been to the UK say that some smugglers make arrangements where people can pay off debts illegally when they arrive in the UK.
Charity ‘Fundjave Ndryshe’ supports 17,000 families
Debt Mortgage Agreement
Debt-binding arrangements are extremely risky, leaving people vulnerable to exploitation and extortion and all that after a perilous journey in a flimsy dinghy or hidden in a barrel behind a truck.
But many say it’s worth the chance to have a different future.
“You only live once,” Maria said. “Live like a worm or drown, because there’s no other choice, this is the way. Live like a worm, or risk your life. You have to put yourself in danger.”
On Monday, UK and France signed a new agreement to try to stop people from crossing the Channel.
It includes a 40% increase in officers on French beaches, £8 million in additional funding and a new task force focused on reversing the recent increase in Albanian citizens and criminal groups. organized control of the routes.
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Why did Albanians come to the UK?
It sounds promising but from our conversations in Albania, it may not be enough.
While a crackdown on smugglers may disrupt boats crossing the Channel, with no hope and opportunity at home, Albania’s illegal migrants are likely to continue to arrive.
