Albanian family show off the home they’ve built – paid for with money sent from their son who entered Britain illegally (though it’s not quite finished as their builder has left…for the UK)
- Sait and Xheride Shabaj have built a brand new home in their deserted village
- Son Nimet works in construction in London and regularly sends them money
- The number of migrants entering Britain from Albania has soared this year
An Albanian family have proudly shown off the home they’ve built using the money sent from their son who entered Britain illegally.
Sait Shabaj and his wife Xheride were the lucky beneficiaries of their 30-year-old son Nimet’s arrival in London on the back of a truck, one of thousands of Albanians who have crossed into the UK.
Their £100,000 pink mansion includes an orange tree orchard and offers views over a river valley in Rrasek.
But the project remains unfinished because the builder has also fled the country for a better life in England, one of 10,000 adult compatriots to cross the Channel by boat this year.
Sait, 70, and Xheride, 53, had hoped their sons who are all working abroad would return once the home was built.
Sait Shabaj and his wife Xheride pose in front of their pink home in Albania built with the money sent from their son who entered Britain illegally
Sait and Xheride were the lucky beneficiaries of their 30-year-old son Nimet’s arrival in London on the back of a truck (pictured together)
But the three children have signalled they want to continue forging their path away from their home town.
Locals say they are now living in ghost towns amid the huge brain drain of young men heading to more prosperous European countries.
Villages like Rrasek are nearly abandoned with its population dwindling from 500 to 100, as Albanians increasingly vie to enter Britain, often on flimsy rafts across the Channel.
Latest figures show they are the biggest migrant group making the crossings which the Home Office is trying to crack down on, with 12,000 making the journey this year, up from 50 in 2020.
Sait, a retired electrician, told The Sun: ‘It is a big problem because now there are only old people here.
Their £100,000 pink mansion offers an orange tree orchard and views over a river valley in Rrasek
‘All the young men have gone for work, so all the young women have gone as well. It means that I can’t find a builder to finish my front wall.’
The father-of-three says it is thanks to the higher salaries in the UK they were able to build their lavish new home.
He claims salaries are five times higher in England than home in Albania and it is worth the £20,000 payment to traffickers to ensure passage to British soil.
He said: ‘England is the best place on this Earth. It is the champion of destinations.’
Seven years ago, Nimet got a lift through Europe then paid to get on a truck which took him through the Eurotunnel.
The builder has since married in the UK giving him right to remain, and he regularly sends money home to his parents.
The father-of-three says it is thanks to the higher salaries in the UK they were able to build their lavish new home
His two older brothers also support his parents from Greece and Italy, and Nimet has ten other relatives working in the UK.
Last month, Dan O’Mahoney, Border Force clandestine threat commander, said 12,000 Albanians have crossed the Channel by small boat since the start of this year, 10,000 of whom were ‘single adult males’.
He said this was equivalent to roughly one to two per cent of the young male population of the country – a category that is understood to include men aged 20 to 40.
‘Two years ago, 50 Albanians arrived in the UK on small boats, last year it was 800 and this year, so far, it’s been 12,000 – of which about 10,000 are single adult men,’ he told the Home Affairs Select Committee.
‘So the rise has been exponential, and we think that is in the main because Albanian criminal gangs have gained a foothold in the north of France and have begun facilitating large numbers of migrants.
Locals say they are now living in ghost towns amid the huge brain drain of young men heading to more prosperous European countries
Dan O’Mahoney, Border Force clandestine threat commander, said 12,000 Albanians have crossed the Channel by small boat since the start of this year, 10,000 of whom were ‘single adult males’. File photo of migrants crossing the Channel
‘Just to put this into context, that number of 10,000 is between one and two percent of the entire adult male population of Albania who have travelled to the UK in small boats.’
Mr O’Mahoney said only a low proportion of Albanian men who made asylum claims were successful.
‘Some of them will of course need our help and will make legitimate asylum claims but the grant rate for single Albanian men – about 12 per cent,’ he said.
‘A lot of them are not actually interested in seeing their asylum claim through. We’ll typically put them in a hotel for a couple of days then they’ll disappear and work illegally in the UK for six months, possibly a year then go back to Albania.’
Former Home Secretary Priti Patel Patel signed a deal with the Albanian government to fast-track deportations back to the Balkan state and for Albanian police officers to be stationed in Dover.
Before the summer, around nine out of ten Albanians were claiming asylum – even though there has been no conflict there for more than 25 years.
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