RE: Tecssss29 May 2023 12:45
Up to 12,800 Albanians who entered the UK illegally have broken their bail conditions, Home Office data shows.
The figures, obtained under Freedom of Information (FOI) legislation, show 12,842 Albanians who had been allowed out of detention on immigration bail pending their deportation failed to report to officials at their designated time in breach of their conditions.
The data, covering the 15 months since the beginning of last year, suggests a significant proportion of the 12,301 Albanians who arrived on small boats across the Channel last year may have breached their bail conditions.
The FOI figures also include Albanians who reached the UK through other illegal means such as those hidden in cross-Channel lorries, cars or ferries.
Many of those released from detention on bail are kept under surveillance through electronic tags which monitor their movements but a cottage industry has sprouted up where criminals offer migrants help with cutting them off.
‘Albanian Rolex’
Scores of videos have been posted on the social media platform TikTok of Albanians using scissors or wire cutters to remove the ankle tags, dubbed within the community as “Albanian Rolex”.
One Albanian - tagged after being charged with growing 800 cannabis plants in an illegal farm - boasted on social media how easy it was to cut off his tag, using nothing more than kitchen scissors: “So, I am a criminal… F— it.”