In a recent article on SkyNews, ‘sophisticated’ Albanian gangs are portrayed as one of the sources for the surge in people trafficking in UK.
According to the British National Crime Agency (NCA) the majority of people trafficked into UK come from Albania. Amidst a worrying 35% increase in the number of women trafficked into UK recently, NCA statistics show a rise in the number of potential trafficking victims – 5.145 between 2016 and 2017.
Whilst reports show that poverty and corruption are fueling human trafficking, interviewed by SkyNews, Deputy Minister of Interior Rovena Voda insists on what has seemingly become the Albanian government’s single answer to all problems in all fields: the vetting of police and magistrates – in her words: “the creation of the pure triangle – police, prosecution, and courts”.
SkyNews correspondent Dan Whitehead brings the horrific testimonies of women trafficked from Albania to UK who have been able to escape their traffickers. SkyNews met 15 victims in a shelter in Vlora and several others in shelters in UK.
Victims’ storylines are similar, horrific and yet familiar for the Albanian reader in particular. The trafficked women were estranged from their families for bringing shame with their pregnancies, beaten by family members or traffickers while pregnant, fled homes or were lured away on false promises and ended up in hands of traffickers who forced them into unpaid work or prostitution, locked and raped by multiple men for long periods of time, sold from gang to gang.
The deputy director of the NCA, Tom Dowdall, says the Albanian gangs are particularly resilient to law enforcement.
“Albanian organised criminal gangs are operating at the higher end of sophistication and are certainly operating in the UK as they do within several other countries in Western Europe.
“They are what we call ‘poly-criminals’ as well, so not only are they involved in organised immigration crime and trafficking but also in drug smuggling, firearms trafficking and often violent and serious organised crime.”
Whilst half of the victims of trafficking in UK are exploited in the sex industry, the other half endures labor exploitation by traffickers, working for very little or no money at all. Social media and fake employment agencies are among sources through which victims are lured into jobs abroad that don’t actually exist.
Deputy Minister of Interior Rovena Doda seems to contradict herself when, in a desperate attempt to create trust through rhetoric and in lack of concrete action, she calls on victims to trust the Albanian institutions even now, before “the pure triangle” is fully operational:
“Victims can trust us. […]My door is open for every one of them. […]Please trust us.”
