FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
As we enter the summer season and attention to politics has declined, Prime Minister Edi Rama has attempted to become the protagonist today. He has been involved in a debate with British MP Nigel Farage, after the latter attacked him over the "NO" he said to Prime Minister Starmer on sheltering refugees. According to Nigel Farage, 1 in 50 Albanians is imprisoned and this figure did not please Rama, who challenged him. But the figures were published by the newspaper "The Telegraph", which responded to Rama by showing how he got them.
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Albania's prime minister has vowed to accept the return of all Albanian prisoners in the United Kingdom, following a public clash with Nigel Farage over their numbers in prison.
The leader of the Reform UK party has publicly called on Edi Rama to take back Albanians imprisoned in Britain, accusing him of hypocrisy after his comments describing Britain as a “dark place” after leaving the European Union. Farage argued that it is hypocritical to describe Britain in this way when, according to him, one in 50 Albanians living there is in prison.
Farage, who has emerged in the polls as one of the favorites to be the next prime minister, called on Rama to show "good will" and take all Albanian prisoners "as soon as tomorrow."
Rama, known for his high stature, reacted on the social network X by saying that if Farage's figure is correct, then he will take all the convicts back. But if it is incorrect, he will invite Farage to Albania as an honorary guest, on the condition that he does not speak badly about the country anymore.
“Ooopsss... Mr. Nigel Farage himself publicly challenged me on the facts!” Rama wrote in a post. “What an honor – for a ‘giant man’, as he described me (implying of course that I am from a ‘small country’) – to catch the attention of the inimitable master of title politics in Britain. He said, and I quote: ‘I’m telling you, Mr. Rama, did you know that one in 50 Albanians in Britain are in prison? Show some goodwill and take them all back tomorrow, because this is hypocrisy.’”
Rama further called this figure “crazy” and a typical example of post-Brexit propaganda. He added that many Albanians are hostage to an outdated and restrictive visa system, while according to him, the crime rate among Albanians is “no higher, and perhaps lower, than that of the British population.”
He continued: “Let’s bring both of our numbers to the table. If your claim of ‘one in 50’ turns out to be correct, then I will personally commit to taking them all back. This is not a headline-grabbing game, it’s a public pledge. But if this frightening statistic turns out to be just tabloid fodder, then I expect no apologies. There’s no drama. It’s just that you’re coming to Albania, as my guest of honor… And the only thing I’m going to ask of you is a simple public pledge, to make while you enjoy our country: the next time someone speaks ill of Albanians, you will be the first to tell them, in your theatrical style, to stop.”
Speaking to The Telegraph, Farage said he would accept the challenge. "We will make sure Edi Rama keeps his word."
The figure Farage spoke of was first reported by The Telegraph, based on data from the Ministry of Justice and the Office for National Statistics in Britain. It shows that there are 10,435 foreign nationals and 76,866 British nationals in prisons in England and Wales. Countries with fewer than 20 people in prison were not included due to the small sample size.
The data was compared with the 2021 census, taking into account foreign nationals living in the UK but not holding a British passport. There may be slight errors as some foreigners may have gained citizenship but not applied for a passport.
The imprisonment rate for Albanians is 232.33 per 10,000 people, or approximately 1 in 50. This was calculated on the basis of 68,672 Albanians born outside Britain but living there, while excluding the 15,860 who have British passports, around 52,000 remain without passports. With 1,227 Albanians in prison, this corresponds to a rate of 2%.
The clash began after Farage attacked Rama over the latter’s criticism of Britain after Brexit. Rama had said that Sir Keir Starmer’s plan to send rejected asylum seekers outside Britain to centres in Europe showed that post-Brexit Britain was in “a very dark situation”. He added that Britain was “looking for places to dump migrants”, something he said would have been unthinkable ten years ago. /Adapted from “Pamphlet” by “The Telegraph”
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