British prison statistics and migration: Albanians, including those from Kosovo, most numerous foreign nationals in prisons

Albanians make up a significant portion of the prison population in the United Kingdom. This rate is far higher than the average for other ethnic groups in the country. Available data only covers those holding passports from Albania and Kosovo. According to a table compiled by The Telegraph based on data from the Ministry of Justice, as many as one in 50 of them is in prison, reports Euronews.

Albanians from both Albania and Kosovo hold the top two spots in that table, with approximately 1,280 out of around 56,000 Albanians in the country currently incarcerated for various criminal offenses.

This grim statistic has prompted a reaction from Nigel Farage's Reform Party, which pointed out that under both Labour and Conservative governments, foreign criminals have been coming into Britain.

That Farage’s comments about foreign criminals pertain to Albanians is evident from data showing that at the end of 2024, Albanians—including those from Kosovo—made up between 10% and 14% of the foreign prison population in the UK.

By this measure, Albanians are by far the most represented foreign nationality in British prisons. Their incarceration rate is up to 25 times higher than that of other nationalities such as Germans or Italians and seven times higher than the average for British citizens.

The growing number of Albanians in British prisons even prompted the House of Commons in 2023 to commission a detailed analysis of asylum seekers and migration from Albania, due to the extremely high levels of criminal activity associated with this ethnic group.

Initial findings showed that a quarter of the 45,755 people who crossed the English Channel in boats in 2022 came from Albania—although even this is believed to underrepresent the total number arriving via other routes.

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It’s estimated that there are currently around 140,000 Albanians (this figure refers only to those from Albania) in the United Kingdom. The report’s authors stress that the UK government must maintain good relations with Albania to ensure it can deport irregular migrants and prison inmates back to Albania.

The UK’s reliance on good relations with Albania, emphasized by the House of Commons, gains further significance when considering the stated migration reasons—among them organized crime.

According to the report, the Channel crossings by boat are orchestrated by criminal groups, as Albanian crime gangs have established bases in northern France from which they transport migrants.

Causes of the High Incarceration Rate Among Albanians in the UK

The high incarceration rate of Albanians in the UK is mainly linked to their involvement in organized crime, especially drug trafficking, human trafficking, prostitution, and the recruitment of children for sexual exploitation.

Albanian criminal groups wield significant influence in the UK cocaine market, often establishing direct links with Colombian cartels. Of the 1,280 Albanian inmates in 2024, a large number were convicted for drug production and distribution, including cannabis and cocaine.

Additionally, many Albanians who arrive in the UK illegally via small boats pay smugglers between €3,000 and €20,000. Migrants often sign debt contracts, leading them to participate in illegal activities—such as working on cannabis farms—to repay their debts.

These activities are often intertwined, as noted by Tony Smith, former Director General of the UK Border Force, in an interview with Scotland’s The Sun.

“Brutally violent criminals, trading on their reputations as Balkan war veterans, soon shifted from smuggling people to smuggling weapons and drugs into the UK. In Europe, they became allies of Turkish and Italian gangs, acting as enforcers, hitmen, and heroin traffickers from Afghanistan,” Smith said of the Albanian mafia in the UK.

Prostitution Controlled by Albanians

The problem of prostitution—completely controlled by Albanians as a branch of illegal business—was already being reported in the early 2000s by Inspector Paul Holmes of the Metropolitan Police.

At the time, he told The Independent that he believed 70–75% of women working in brothels were either Albanian or ethnic Albanian from Kosovo.

“Albanians have inserted their girls into the existing brothel infrastructure, but the women are controlled by organized criminals. They believe that once their debts are paid off, they’ll be able to earn good money for themselves. The reality is very different,” he said, adding:

“In the best-case scenario, it’s ruthless exploitation. In the worst-case, it’s daily rape. Albanian prostitutes were afraid to testify against their pimps because of threats of retaliation against their families.”

In addition to the exploitation of adult Albanian women, child exploitation remains a longstanding problem related to the Albanian mafia in Britain. Such cases often involve children from other nationalities as well, such as the widely publicized case of a 15-year-old Romanian girl who was virtually imprisoned and exploited by an Albanian man acting as her pimp.