By Annabelle Dickson
Publication Date: 2025-11-20 10:42:00
That sparked the ire of Albania’s Edi Rama, who has clashed in the past with British right-wing reformist leader Nigel Farage.
Rama posted on Wednesday X: “Official policy should never be driven by ethnic stereotypes. That is the least humanity expects from great Britain.”
The 700 Albanian families Mahmood had highlighted were, Rama argued, “a statistical drop in the ocean of post-Brexit Britain’s challenges”. Singling out Albanian families “was not a policy”, but “a disturbing and indecent exercise in demagoguery”, he added.
Britain’s last Conservative government signed a return deal with Albania in 2022, and official data shows the UK has deported more than 13,000 people there since then.
“Albania is, and intends to remain, one of the UK’s most active allies in broader migration control in the Balkans,” Rama said.
“The UK should look for ways to deepen cooperation with Albania on all security issues – from defense to border protection – rather than repeatedly scapegoating Albanians and thus exposing citizens of an allied nation to greater risks, including from extremist groups that thrive on such narratives,” he added.
When asked about Rama’s characterization in an interview broadcast Thursday morning, Mahmood said, “I obviously don’t agree.”
He insisted that he was referring to people whose asylum claims in the UK had failed, and not to Albanians who were still considered to be in need of protection. “We’re not talking about people who are refugees,” he said.