Deception, Desperation & Drugs: How Young Albanian Males are Smuggled & Trafficked into the UK

• In Event: Rethinking migrant smuggling: Narratives, perceptions and policies across routes

Abstract

As both a country expert and academic, the witness statements by asylum seekers I read are harrowing. None more so than those involving trafficking in which the victim is physically and mentally abused and coerced to perform tasks by his/her masters with little chance to escape. In the last 2 years, I received 9 formal instructions by law firms asking me to produce expert reports on the risk of persecution young Albanian males faced if they were removed to Albania after being trafficked to the UK to grow drugs. My presentation aims to delineate complex issues as to how victims are deceived, the economic desperation they face back home and the arduous journey they undertake to reach the UK. These issues are also, in some respects, misconceived as victims who could have either avoided being trafficked or that through the Illegal Migration Act 2023 they should be removed from the UK to a “safe third country.”
The case study of young Albanian males precipitates a broader debate within the mind of policymakers and judges as to how persecution should be understood within an asylum seeker’s unique context and whether or not the categories of refugee status may be expanded or restricted. My methodology will involve a critical analysis of the UK’s law and policy on modern slavery, arguments by the Home Office to reject or accept asylum seekers’ claims and the crucial role of country experts in presenting evidence to judges.

Author

• Imranali Panjwani, Anglia Ruskin University