Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government how much the arrangement with Albania to fast-track the removal of Albanian nationals who have travelled to the UK via small boats, announced on 25 August, will cost; and how many Albanians seeking asylum in the UK they expect to be removed under this arrangement.

Following the new approach agreed with the Albanian government last week, we are in close discussions with them on the operational details. Further information including final actual spend will be provided within Home Office financial statements in the usual way.

We continue to work extremely closely with our Albanian partners on a range of issues and are committed to building on our cooperation to date, including on tackling illegal migration. That includes the excellent operational collaboration with Albanian law enforcement, and our readmissions agreement signed last year, which has already seen over 1,000 Albanian foreign national offenders and immigration offenders removed from the UK, including some who crossed the channel illegally to come to the UK.

The UK and Albania pledged to fast track the removal of Albanians with no right to be in the UK wherever possible, and to send senior Albanian law enforcement to the UK to speed up processing and share information with our authorities. In co-operation with the Government of Albania, we are taking every opportunity to intercept the activities of organised criminal gangs and people smugglers, and speed up the removal of Albanians and other nationals with no right to be in the UK.