That sparked the ire of Albania\u2019s Edi Rama \u2014 who has clashed with Britain\u2019s right-wing Reform UK leader Nigel Farage in the past.<\/p>\n
Rama posted on X Wednesday: \u201cOfficial policy should never be driven by ethnic stereotyping. That is the very least humanity expects from the great Great Britain.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 700 Albanian families Mahmood had highlighted were, Rama argued \u201ca statistical drop in the ocean of post-Brexit Britain\u2019s challenges.\u201d Singling out Albanian families was \u201cnot policy,\u201d but \u201ca troubling and indecent exercise in demagoguery,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Britain\u2019s last Conservative government signed a returns deal with Albania in 2022, and official data shows the U.K. has deported more than 13,000 people there since.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlbania is, and intends to remain, one of the U.K.\u2019s most active allies in broader migration control across the Balkans,\u201d Rama argued.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe U.K. should be seeking ways to deepen cooperation with Albania on all security issues \u2013 from defense to border protection \u2014 rather than repeatedly scapegoating Albanians and thereby exposing citizens of an allied nation to increased risks, including from extremist groups that thrive on such narratives,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Asked about Rama\u2019s characterization in an interview aired on Thursday morning Mahmood said: \u201cI obviously disagree.\u201d<\/p>\n
She insisted she was talking about people whose asylum claims in the U.K. had failed, rather than Albanians still deemed to be in need of protection. \u201cWe are not talking about people who are refugees,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"That sparked the ire of Albania\u2019s Edi Rama \u2014 who has clashed with Britain\u2019s right-wing Reform UK leader…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":582350,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5018,3,4],"tags":[10541,5108,6560,768,748,6215,43669,393,4884,4582,40,6657,1144,46,48,712,811,60422,182,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-582349","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"category-uk","9":"category-united-kingdom","10":"tag-albania","11":"tag-asylum","12":"tag-balkans","13":"tag-borders","14":"tag-britain","15":"tag-cooperation","16":"tag-edi-rama","17":"tag-england","18":"tag-great-britain","19":"tag-human-rights","20":"tag-immigration","21":"tag-migration","22":"tag-northern-ireland","23":"tag-policy","24":"tag-rights","25":"tag-scotland","26":"tag-security","27":"tag-shabana-mahmood","28":"tag-social-media","29":"tag-uk","30":"tag-united-kingdom","31":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115581640066728652","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=582349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/582350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=582349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=582349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=582349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}