Last Thursday, a 22-year-old Albanian man was stabbed to death in Sheffield, UK, while involved in a group fight.
Armend Xhika was dropped by a car outside the emergency department at Northern General Hospital where doctors struggled in vain to save him.
A friend told The Star, a British newspaper, that Xhika had moved to the UK illegally in 2018, in the hope of a better life for himself and his family.
He added that Albanian youth desperate to escape their homeland because of poverty pay up to £26,000 to enter the UK illegally. To pay these sums, immigrants take on loans from banks, friends, relatives or even criminal gangs offering them a way to the UK.
Xhika’s friend called for a crowdfund to be organized so that the young man’s body may be returned to his family in Albania for his burial.
He also urged British authorities to consider Xhika’s death a warning bell, alerting them that criminal gangs are exploiting and smuggling young people like Armend across the channel, knowing they lack the documentation to work legally in Britain.
