For weeks, one figure became a refrain: 63 Albanians convicted in three months, one Albanian in prison every two days, 9 percent of the prison population in England and Wales.
Repeated in the British media and then reproduced almost mechanically in some Albanian media, this narrative has been presented as an indisputable fact, without relying on direct verification from official sources.
But it is precisely this verification, absent from most reports, that sheds a completely different light on the story.
The UK Ministry of Justice states that it has no data on one of the main claims that has been circulating in the media.
“I can confirm that the Ministry of Justice does not hold this information regarding question 1,” the response states, adding that data on the nationality of the convicted “cannot be extracted from the administrative systems of the courts,” it said in a response to the AP.
This refers to the question of whether the figure of 63 Albanian citizens convicted during the period January-March 2026 is accurate.
In other words, one of the most widespread figures in public discourse is not confirmed by the institution responsible for criminal statistics in the United Kingdom.
This development gives a significant twist to the open debate since the beginning of April, where alarmist headlines in media such as The Telegraph and The Sun created a clear narrative: Albanians as a direct problem in the British penal system.
Illegal migration of Albanians to Britain to drop significantly in 2025
According to the latest figures for 2025, the flow of illegal migration has fallen to its lowest levels recorded in a decade. Only 380 cases of irregular entry were identified throughout the year, including 255 arrivals in small boats, while the rest were detected in ports or within British territory.
British authorities link this sharp decline to the cooperation agreement between Albania and the United Kingdom signed at the end of 2022, which included accelerated returns of illegal immigrants, joint police operations, and crackdowns on trafficking networks.
“This is a consolidated partnership, with concrete results,” said the head of the state police, Skënder Hita, during a meeting on Tuesday with the Deputy Ambassador of the United Kingdom to Albania, Ms. Julia Sutherland. “The State Police remains a reliable and active partner in ensuring security, both at home and abroad,” he added.
Statistics show that the structure of migration remains unchanged. The vast majority of Albanians migrating illegally to the United Kingdom are males in the 18-39 age group, while women and minors make up a small percentage.
Data shows that the phenomenon continued to increase after 2020. During the period 2018–2020, British authorities recorded an average of 200-350 cases per quarter, involving entry with illegal documents at airports, ports or identified persons within the territory of the United Kingdom.
During this period, arrivals by small boats accounted for only a very small proportion of cases. The situation changed significantly in 2021, when the number of Albanians using the English Channel sea route began to increase.
In the third quarter of that year, 241 Albanians were registered to arrive by small boats, while in the fourth quarter the figure increased to 551 people, signaling the transformation of this route into the main channel of irregular migration towards Britain.
The historic peak was reached in 2022. In the third quarter of 2022 alone, British authorities identified 9,044 Albanian nationals arriving by small boats, while in the second quarter of that year another 2,194 cases were recorded. In total, over 13,000 irregular entries were identified during 2022, making Albania one of the main nationalities on this migration route.
After this peak, the trend quickly reversed. In 2023, the total number of cases fell to just 1,190 for the entire year, while arrivals by small boats were significantly reduced to a few dozen or hundreds per quarter.
The decline continued into 2024, when British authorities recorded 840 cases in total throughout the year, a much lower level compared to previous years.