The Home Office could be blocked from deporting many young male trafficking victims to Albania after a major court ruling.
Thousands of Albanian males have been identified as potential trafficking victims in the UK in recent years. Many are sent back to their country even if they are potential or confirmed victims of trafficking, as the Home Office contends they will be safe there.
The ruling is likely to come as a significant blow to the government, which is trying to increase the number of people it removes.
Albanians have been the most common nationality forcibly removed from the UK in the last five years, with 2,247 deported in the 12 months to the end of March, accounting for a quarter of enforced returns, according to UK government figures.
Data disclosed in the court case shows that while Albanian females were previously major victims of trafficking, in their case into the UK sex industry, they have been overtaken by males – mainly boys and young men – who are trafficked into the drugs trade, either to distribute illegal drugs or to work as “gardeners” in cannabis farms.
In 2022, 4,107 Albanian males were referred to UK services over potential trafficking, in comparison with 502 women. In 2023, the figure was 3,463 males and 588 females.
The legal challenge was brought by a 21-year-old victim of trafficking from Albania who was first exploited by an Albanian gang in Belgium when he visited the country with his father at 16. He was sold to another Albanian gang, who brought him to the UK and forced him to work cultivating cannabis plants. He later escaped and was recognised as a victim of trafficking, but was denied asylum because he was told it would be safe for him to return to Albania.
A panel of three senior judges in the upper tribunal of the immigration court accepted his asylum claim and found that even though five years had passed since he was first trafficked, he remained at “real risk” from his traffickers and could not safely move back to Albania.
The judges issued new country guidance to the government, which must be considered by the Home Office before deciding whether to send male trafficking victims back to Albania.
The judgment found that while Albania has made progress on tackling corruption, it continues to be a widespread problem and that there are no dedicated shelters for adult male trafficking victims, while the risk of victims being retrafficked if returned to Albania is significant.
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Islington Law Centre, which has particular expertise in representing Albanian trafficking victims, highlighted many concerning practices that gangs subject their victims to. These include deliberately videoing sexual abuse including rape of child trafficking victims and threatening to release the footage on social media; they also show videos of loved ones in Albania to young people to let them know they know who their families are; and the gangs also inflict physical injuries such as broken bones on children and young people.
Esme Madill, a solicitor at Islington Law Centre specialising in representing young Albanian trafficking victims, welcomed the judgment: “This measured judgment has been reached by a court which had the benefit of significant and detailed evidence as to the worrying issue of trafficking of boys and young men by organised Albanian criminal networks. The profiles of trafficking survivors and the risks recognised in the judgment accord strongly with what we see in our work with deeply brutalised and traumatised young survivors every week.”
Home Office sources said they were considering whether to apply for permission to appeal.
