Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on May 14, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 23, 2026
UK steps up actions against immigration crime in the Balkans, focusing on smuggling networks and illegal migration, with new measures announced by PM Keir Starmer.
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will step up its efforts to tackle criminal networks across the Western Balkans that facilitate illegal migration, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Thursday, days after he announced a major set of reforms to help reduce legal migration.
Losing ground in the polls to Nigel Farage's anti-immigration Reform Party, Starmer is under pressure to show he can control both legal and illegal immigration, and that on the latter his plan to target people smuggling gangs is working.
In his first official visit to Albania, Starmer will announce measures to stop Albanian nationals from returning to Britain after they have been deported and do more to eliminate money laundering between the two countries. He will donate two forgery detection machines to catch those using fake passports.
He will also announce the expansion of a joint migration task force to add North Macedonia and Montenegro. The group already includes Albania and Kosovo.
In 2022 Albanians made up the largest group heading to Britain on small boats but the number has since fallen sharply, in part due to a deportation deal agreed by the previous Conservative government.
On legal migration - which makes up the vast majority of those coming to Britain - Starmer promised on Monday to cut net arrivals significantly, saying the country risked becoming "an island of strangers" without tougher rules.
(Reporting by Catarina Demony; Editing by William James)
The article discusses the UK's efforts to combat organised immigration crime in the Western Balkans, focusing on illegal migration.
Measures include stopping Albanian nationals' illegal return, expanding a migration task force, and addressing money laundering.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is leading the efforts, with cooperation from countries in the Western Balkans.
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