Poverty, not crime, fuels urge to flee abroad

It has been all go for his majesty's ambassador to Albania, Alastair King-Smith. The crisis in relations between the two countries, arising from the boats crossing the Channel with reportedly growing numbers of Albanians, has been reflected in the calibre of officials, both military and political, visiting the British mission.

- Helena Smith

Last week it was Lt Gen Stuart Skeates, the Afghanistan veteran now leading efforts to stem the crossings, who flew in. This week the home secretary, Suella Braverman, was expected for a visit that, it was hoped, might dampen the outrage sparked by her description of Albanians as staging an "invasion" of the UK.

Last Thursday, the row escalated and Albania's prime minister, Edi Rama, compared the British government's rhetoric to "screams from a madhouse".

But the real centre of the dispute that has prompted London to dispatch its delegations is not in Tirana but around 150km north-east, in Albania's poverty-stricken highlands, where many still dream of getting to Dover on the dinghies Braverman is determined to stop.

Once a dumping ground for convicts and political prisoners during Albania's communist era, it is on this hard terrain, within view of the Albanian Alps, that those lucky enough to have a job eke out a living on average pay of just €270 ($270) a month.