Albanians are being unfairly demonised in illegal immigration debate | Letter

Albania’s ambassador to the UK, Uran Ferizi, takes exception to media reports that he says selectively focus on the criminality of Albanians Report: Albanians in UK scapegoated by rightwing media and politicians, says ambassador These are challenging times in Britain. Economic pressure has a long history of finding a foreign face to blame. For several years now, that face has been Albanian – caricatured by certain media outlets and politicians in ways that are neither fair nor, frankly, very British. The statistics most often cited do not bear scrutiny. For example, the Telegraph’s claim in 2024 that one in 50 Albanians in the UK was in prison was derived by selectively narrowing the total Albanian population in the UK by multiple factors, producing a ratio designed to alarm rather than inform. When adjusted for age, sex, income and residency status, the figure collapses to the British average. The reality behind the 2022 surge in Albanian arrivals is more mundane. Post-Covid economic hardship hit southern Europe harder than most. Combined with a UK visa system towards Albanians that is badly in need of reform, it produced a wave of young people chasing a promise that social media