FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
Gang bosses are using social media to recruit workers and are offering special deals where instead of being paid expenses, they will take up to 30 percent of the profits from street drug sales...
Young Albanians are being warned in Home Office advertisements that they will be used as "slaves" by organised crime gangs if they enter the UK illegally.
Digital advertisements set to go live in Albania next month aim to deter migrants with "real-life" stories of young people who used smugglers to enter the UK.
One of the videos contains the profile of an Albanian who was "promised a well-paid job," but instead tells viewers: "I was a slave."
The advert ends with the warning: "Trying to enter the UK illegally could cost you everything."
A second video features an illegal immigrant who says he is owed "a lot of money for the trip," but adds: "They won't say how long I have to work or how much I owe."
A third tells viewers: "They said my family would be harmed if I didn't follow the instructions."
Each ends with the Home Office warning: "Get the facts on illegal migration."
The government said the ads were designed to counter "myths and misinformation spread by criminals to deceive people."
A record 12,000 Albanians crossed the Channel in small boats in 2022. But the number has fallen sharply after the UK and Albanian governments agreed a fast-track return deal to deport illegal immigrants from Britain.
Gangs use social media
Albanian drug gangs have responded to the lack of migrants to work on their cannabis farms in the UK by openly recruiting farmers on TikTok.
Gang bosses are using social media to recruit workers and are offering special deals where instead of being paid with expenses, they will take up to 30 percent of the profits from street drug sales.
Martin Hewitt, head of the new Border Security Command, said: "This campaign helps to break the business model of these criminals and protects people from falling victim to their dangerous lies, securing our borders as part of the Government's Plan for Change."
"Working closely with international partners like Albania, we are targeting criminal gangs at every turn, disrupting their operations across borders and bringing perpetrators to justice. Communications are a key part of this work, sending a clear message to potential migrants that these criminals cannot be trusted," he said.
Albanian gangs have come to dominate the local cannabis market, where plants are grown in homes or cheap industrial settings using hydroponic technology imported from farms in their homeland. In the past decade, they have usurped the Vietnamese as the main suppliers of cannabis to users in the UK. Similar ads have been promoted in Vietnam, which now accounts for more migrants from the Channel than Albania and is in the top five countries for crossings. / Adapted from The Telegraph /
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