New country guidance has recently been published by the Upper Tribunal on the risks to male Albanian victims of trafficking on return.
The tribunal found that, despite efforts by the Albanian government, trafficking remains widespread and the risk of being re-trafficked if returned to Albania is significant. This guidance must be considered by the Home Office when deciding whether it is safe to send trafficking victims back to Albania.
Data disclosed by the respondent showed that, while it used to be thought that Albanian females were predominantly victims of trafficking, they have since been overtaken by males, with mainly boys and young men being trafficked into the drugs trade and made to distribute illegal drugs or forced to work as “gardeners” in cannabis farms. While the number of Albanian males referred to the UK authorities as potential victims of trafficking was 4,107 in 2022 and 3,463 in 2023, the statistics for Albanian females were 502 and 588 in the same years.
This echoes our experience in the Breaking Chains project, where we observe increasingly concerning practices that Albanian gangs in the UK subject their victims to. This can range from deliberately videoing sexual abuse, including rape of child trafficking victims and threatening to post footage on social media, to showing videos of loved ones in Albania to young people to let them know they are within their reach, and inflicting physical injuries such as breaking the bones of children and young people.
“The profiles of trafficking survivors and the risks recognised in the judgment accord strongly with what we see in our work with deeply brutalised and traumatised young survivors every week” Esme Madill, solicitor for the project, told the Guardian.
Breaking the Chains specialises in providing legal support for young Albanian victims of trafficking through a partnership between MiCLU and Shpresa Programme, a community-based organisation. Both organisations are highly concerned about the powerful hold that gangs increasingly have on vulnerable young people they see, the extent of grooming taking place in the UK, and the powerlessness of both those individuals being controlled as well as the support services in place to help the victims, in the face of organised gang brutality and coercion.
The country guidance case outlines non-exhaustive risk factors for exploitation similar to those in TD and AD. They include:
• low socio-economic status or homelessness
• limited education and difficulty in securing legitimate work
• ill health or addiction
• originating from Northern Albania or a rural area
• age (younger men and teenagers being more vulnerable)
• lack of family or other support, due to a blood feud, criminality or adverse childhood experiences
• belonging to a minority ethnic group, or identifying as LGBT.
Key to any decision on granting protection to a victim of trafficking – and key to building a successful case – will be an individualised and fact-specific assessment of the victim’s vulnerabilities as well as information relating to their traffickers.
While one risk factor alone may be sufficient to make a person a victim, multiple factors may increase the risk.
Importantly, and contrary to guidance issued by the Home Office which has now been withdrawn, the country guidance case confirms that Albanian male victims of trafficking can rely on the Refugee Convention as members of a particular social group.
See this Free Movement article for a more detailed overview of the case.
See also: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/aug/21/home-office-albanian-trafficking-victims-deport
