The Albanian mafia have opened up a new route to smuggle migrants into Britain through a busy Spanish port, a Sunday People investigation has found. Police in the northern Spanish city are struggling to cope with the surge in migrants in the last three months.
In two years there has been a tenfold increase in people caught trying to get into lorries or containers at the port. But under Spanish law they are committing only a civil offence β so police can only take their details and free them.
Hundreds more camping out waiting to seize their chance can also not be touched β as they carry tourist visas. Lured with the promise of illegal jobs in car washes and on building sites in London, they are unaware they will finish up at the mercy of callous gang masters.
Arriving in Bilbao, our investigators found more than people in tents and under motorway bridges at the port perimeter. Ismail, 29, a welder from Peshkopi in north east Albania, shares a two-man tent with three others, including his nephew. I have to try and get there for free by smuggling myself. In , that figure rose to This year, it is already at a record 1, Those caught included 60 Iraqis, 45 Afghans and 25 Pakistanis.
By far the most β of them β came from Albania. Some were fleeing the ex-Communist country after suffering persecution over their ethnicity, sexuality or religion. But with high youth unemployment, many others are economic migrants. The UK, with 20, Albanians legally living here, is their most popular destination. Two camps in the hills around Bilbao port were destroyed by police a week ago and security has been stepped up.
