 |
| Boat with migrants anchoring off the coast of southern Britain and a British policeman (archive) |
The British Ministry of Immigration has ordered asylum units to deal only with asylum requests made by Albanians, in order to speed up deportations, forcing citizens of other nationalities to suffer long waits.
Sources quoted by the British media, The Independent, say that the initiative, dubbed Operation Bridora, aims to declare as many Albanian applications as clearly unfounded, in order to remove them from the territory without wasting time.
Clare Moseley, the founder of the charity Care4Calais, said some of the other nationals being pushed to the end of the queue qualify for asylum but will now have to wait a long time before they can restart their lives. "This new operation is likely to be discriminatory but above all ineffective in combating the problems created by government policies in the asylum system. It will do very little to reduce asylum claims."
Of the 140,000 asylum requests, which are awaiting an initial decision in Great Britain, about 16 percent or 22,900 of them are Albanians. 16,000 of the applications are related to Iranians, 14,500 to Iraqis, 9,000 to Afghans, and about 7,000 to Syrians and Eritreans.