UK to step up crime-fighting partnership with Albania following successful drugs crackdown

The UK has agreed to step up its partnership with Albania following a successful summer in which the two countries carried out a collaborative crackdown on drugs and crime.

Senior Home Office officials will travel to Tirana, the capital of Albania, for further talks before Christmas on how to tackle serious and organised crime, as well as illegal migration and small boat crossings in the Channel.

Over the summer, the UK-Albania joint taskforce, which was launched in 2022, disrupted the flow of illicit cash, emanating from illegal working and drug trafficking.

As part of the operation, hundreds of thousands of pounds and quantities of cocaine were seized.

Last week Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, met Albanian interior minister Ervin Hoxha to discuss how to further the aims of the government's Border Security Command, launched this year to replace the Tory administration's plan to send illegal migrants to Rwanda.

Martin Hewitt, the new border security commander, started in post on Monday 7 October and is leading the coordinated response to enhancing border protection.

Mr Hoxha said: "We are extremely pleased with the outcomes achieved through collaborative operations between Albanian and British law enforcement agencies in tackling organised crime.

"We have strong reasons to believe these accomplishments will be further enhanced and strengthened moving forward."

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The Home Office has said 509 people crossed the Channel in 11 vessels on Thursday.

It means that in the past seven days, 1,597 people crossed in 29 boats.

The latest figures show that 29,154 people in total have now made the trip in 2024, just shy of the number who made the trip in the whole of 2023.