Human trafficking is the act of obtaining individuals by coercion, fraud, or deception for the purpose of exploitation for financial gain. This crime occurs throughout the world. Human trafficking violates inalienable rights including the right to life, liberty, security, freedom of movement, and the right to be free from torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.
Human Rights abused
Millions of individuals are still trafficked every year in all areas and most countries of the globe, for a variety of reasons, including forced and exploitative employment in factories, farms, and private residences, sexual exploitation, forced marriage, and organ harvesting.
Because of discrimination and poverty, people have fewer life options, which pushes some to take risks and make choices they otherwise would not have made if their fundamental requirements were addressed. This lack of actual choice makes some groups, like minorities, migrants, and women and girls, more susceptible to human trafficking. In addition to economic hardship and inequality, discrimination based on a person’s gender or ethnicity can also restrict options in life and increase vulnerability to human trafficking. No matter their sex, age, colour, ethnicity, country, immigration status, or other distinction, victims of trafficking are entitled to the whole spectrum of human rights since those rights are universal.
Survivors are usually completely cut off from their support networks and often constantly under the trafficker’s control. Most countries prioritise the incarceration, prosecution, and deportation of trafficked people who commit crimes connected to their situation, such as breaking immigration rules, engaging in prostitution, or beggaring. These laws victimise the victim, creating vulnerabilities and further human rights abuses that might ultimately lead to re-trafficking.
Albanian Boys facing Human Trafficking
Albania is a significant nation of origin for victims of trafficking. Albanians make up the biggest European group of recognised victims of sexual exploitation.
Albanian children consistently make up one of the top five largest groups of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in the UK. Despite this, not a single Albanian child was granted asylum in the UK in 2018 (the most recent year for which we have records).
Economic vulnerability increases the risk of trafficking for adolescents and young men. Boys trafficked typically come from very poor families, often from homes without running water. Before being trafficked, boys frequently reside in subpar housing, and a significant portion of boys are actually destitute and living on the streets at the time of trafficking. The families of the boys are generally underprivileged and unable to provide for their children. Some parents have encouraged their children to quit school and work as a result of this circumstance, which has sometimes resulted in such children being trafficked. Because they are frequently in need of employment and because they are more isolated than city inhabitants, human traffickers are more likely to target the poor in rural regions. Women, children, and migrants are all main targets of human traffickers. These groups are more in demand for sexual exploitation than adult males, and they are also easier to attract and hold captive. Men are also exploited by traffickers, albeit they are less sought-after. Typically, they are made to labour in factories or farms in the adjacent Balkan nations.
Since the late 1990s, Albania has had a reputation as a global leader in human trafficking. Early on, Albania did not have laws to address such a novel situation. Italy and Greece were the two primary destinations in the past, as well as other places that are also popular vacation spots. In Albania, there is currently not enough legislation in place to address the problem.
The Albanian government stepped up efforts to end trafficking after disturbing reports of kidnapped women and girls emerged in the early 2000s. Albania has taken a number of actions to combat trafficking, but these actions have often concentrated on victim care and help; there is still a great deal of work to be done in terms of prevention.
Despite government efforts to improve social and economic conditions, Albanians nevertheless are in a precarious position. The economic empowerment of women and young men has to be improved. Inequality between the sexes is still a concern in Albania and contributes to other social problems including trafficking, domestic abuse, and gender-based violence.
Despite the fact that trafficking trends have altered over time, Albania continues to be a major source nation for trafficking victims. The charity Skills for Jobs, that works extensively in Albania, highlights the need for greater skills training for the young Albanian workforce to give them better prospects at home. Given that China and Nigeria are frequently placed after Albania on lists that track the amount of trafficked individuals, the data is quite concerning. In recent years, whilst sexual exploitation continues, there is a huge increase in levels of labour-based and criminal exploitation.
Blood feuds or other types of cases involving interconnected people are common in Albania. These are extremely complicated cases from an immigration standpoint, and they typically take several years to resolve.
Nearly all Albanian nationals who are victims of trafficking do not intend to return to Albania, regardless of whether they are recognised as refugees or not. There are very few instances of Albanian nationals returning home. This is crucial from a policy standpoint when trying to develop victim return and reintegration strategies.
Organized Crime Gangs
Albania has undoubtedly had a hard time turning into a functioning democracy. Following communist rule, conditions were incredibly difficult and unemployment was high during the years of “transition,” as they call them in Albania. There have been significant problems with organized crime and corruption (Organised Crime Groups sometimes have tight ties to politicians). The nation’s politics have a militant bent, and leaders have struggled to reach agreements that serve the interests of the country. While there has been progress, the majority of the elections from 1991 to the present have been tainted by allegations of electoral fraud, violence, and other problems.
Illegal migration from Albania has become increasingly prevalent. Due to higher demand, the amount illegal immigrants pay has jumped from £5,000 in 2010 to over £28,000 now. Prices in this shadow market will keep rising, especially now that the UK has exited the EU and there are fewer legal options for settling in the UK which is a preferred destination. The most significant smuggling routes, which include employing trucks and lorries, pass through Belgium and France. These pathways for illegal immigration are closely linked to other facets of organized crime. Although this topic is severely understudied due to a lack of data, many of the smuggled individuals are young men who begin a life of crime once they reach the UK. It is essential to comprehend the migratory backdrop in order to disentangle the trafficking and smuggling nexus that is so pervasive in Albania.
The majority of Albanian boys and young men are trafficked with the complicity of their parents. The traffickers and exploiters promise them money and promise them a job or when the boys are minors, they promise them accommodation, or clothes, things that they need to have.
Albanians are the most common foreign nationality behind bars in England and Wales in 2022 with 1,336 inmates. Additionally, the second and third most numerous foreign nations in prison were Romanians (752) and Poles (830), respectively.
Hardened gangs, often armed with guns, promote their lifestyle to teenagers in Albania. In Britain, established gangs include the Hellbanianz street gang of Albanian boys in south London. They use social media to entice new recruits, sending messages boasting of their success with money, flash cars, fat cigars, women and jewellery. Every week Albanian gang masters make local newspaper headlines after being caught dealing drugs, smuggling huge shipments of cocaine direct from Europe. The drug is at its cheapest since the 1990s and purer than it has been for a decade. Thousands of Albanians arrived in the UK in the late 1990s and early 2000s, many of them claiming to be Kosovan. Many took jobs as door staff in London’s sex and vice trade then took over prostitution rackets, moving into smuggling people, guns and drugs into the UK. They also began dealing cannabis, growing potent strains of the drug here using slave labour.
For the purpose of selling drugs, county lines gangs target children as young as 12 years old. To deal heroin and crack cocaine in the county, criminals are enlisting young people from cities like London. Albanian children as young as seven are being targeted to work as drugs mules. Some youngsters are groomed through internet gaming. The National Crime Agency states the name county lines refers to moving illegal substances across police and local authority lines, frequently using minors or other vulnerable individuals who have been forced into it by gangs. The “county line” is the mobile phone line used to take orders for illicit narcotics.
County line gangs have helped to spread drugs and weapons throughout urban areas. In part as a consequence of these gangs, fatal stabbings have increased, reaching the highest levels ever recorded. Some children, teens, and adults are particularly weak and more likely to be used to cross county lines. Approximately one in 11 adults between the ages of 16 and 59 and one in five adults between the ages of 16 and 24 reported using illegal drugs in the year ending June 2022, according to official statistics from 2022; there was no change from the year ending March 2020. Profits are high throughout the whole drug trafficking process, but they are especially high for individuals who have access to the narcotics in the place of origin. Cannabis and cocaine are largely controlled by criminals from the Balkans, but British traffickers also remain a significant threat in the chain.
Albanians represented 28% of all small boat entries to the UK in 2022, the highest percentage of any country, followed by Afghans (20%). About 12% of the new entrants from Albania claimed to be victims of modern slavery, and 85% of them requested refuge. Compared to 2020, when only 50 Albanians travelled over in tiny boats, this is a significant rise. After the communist government was overthrown, traffickers took advantage of the unrest. In order to end human trafficking from Albania, the government needs help to create more comprehensive social programmes for the underprivileged, increase employment prospects, and enhance access to support services, particularly for those living in rural regions. The government also has to do a better job of screening the targeted populations, training police and prosecutors to spot traffickers and handle instances of trafficking, place more focus on reintegration, and finance shelters run by non-profit organisations.
In order to ensure that individuals are not left vulnerable in both their place of origin and their destination nations, such as the UK, it would be crucial to focus prevention and develop legal migration programmes. Migration through legal channels would reduce the impact of dishonest actors. ‘Pull’ and ‘push’ initiatives need to be emphasised in prevention plans; often, we only concentrate on the latter, but a better strategy encompasses both.
