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Five days after being smuggled into the UK in a lorry, Albanian Iva Memaj dialled the Home Office’s freephone number to claim asylum.

“I feel very excited for my future,” she told us.

“I feel safe here.”

Iva said she ran from the lorry when it got to England, hid and was then picked up by a friend. She said the Romanian driver never got the £18,000 he was expecting.

Now she’s trying to register her arrival with the Home Office on its dedicated hotline – entering a system which she knows could take years to process her application.

But she believes it will be worth the wait, telling us life in Albania is intolerable.

I asked Iva, 31, who was a stockbroker in Albania, why she would make such a dangerous journey in the back of a lorry.

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She said: “It doesn’t make sense. But when you look at Albania and the opportunities it gives to young people it will make sense.

“I just want to live in a happy environment. I just want to live in a safe environment. I want to live in a society that is well-structured and well-organised. I don’t want to live in chaos anymore.”

‘See us as worthy people’

Iva is part of what Home Secretary Suella Braverman has called “an invasion” of migrants, with the numbers coming from Albania soaring.

The vast majority travel by small boat, paying smugglers to get them across the channel – like Iva’s friend, 26-year-old Denis Arapi, who is also from Albania.

Iva and Denis, who say they are both university educated, told us they want to speak to Sky News because of the “stigma” surrounding Albanian asylum seekers.

‘”Why see migrants as a problem,” Denis said. “Start to see us as worthy people.”

The British government said Albania is a safe country and too many asylum seekers are abusing the system claiming to be the victims of modern slavery.

It has also pledged to break the “business model” of the smugglers.

Denis Arapi
Image:
Denis Arapi

How people smugglers recruit

Denis gave us a rare insight into how the smugglers persuade people to join their criminal gangs in the UK.

Denis, who worked in a private hospital as a co-ordinator in Albania, said when he crossed the channel in July – he spoke to other Albanians on the boat and half of them planned to claim asylum but get cash-in-hand work in the construction industry whilst they waited for their claims to be processed.

He claims a quarter – the younger men on the boat – said they would connect with the criminal gangs who smuggled them on arrival in the UK and disappear from the asylum system.

Denis said: “They (the smugglers) know the system is broken and they use this as a strong point to convince people to do this.

“They say ‘you’ll never get asylum papers’. They say ‘you’ll never be integrated into society’. They say ‘There are cases which have been going on for more than three years and they don’t get a work permit.’ They tell you this. They convince you that you come here and you can’t do anything else (except join the gangs).”

The UK authorities say of the more than 12,000 Albanians who’ve arrived in the UK so far this year, about 10,000 are single, adult men.

Too difficult to get a visa

Denis said it’s too difficult to get a visa to come to the UK: “Seeking asylum is the only option to be here.”

He said without money in your bank account, you can’t get a visa.

“I was expecting, when I arrived, the asylum system in Britain would evaluate the migrant.”

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Why are Albanians coming to the UK?

Iva said: “I want to do legal stuff here. I’m a decent person. I can be integrated in society.

“I chose the right way to live my life. Albanians have a bad reputation about it, but I’m one of the Albanians who is not part of the smuggling society, and I wouldn’t like to choose that road.”

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Police search for missing sisters last seen three days ago near Aberdeen river

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Police search for missing sisters last seen three days ago near Aberdeen river

Specialist search teams, police dogs and divers have been dispatched to find two sisters who vanished in Aberdeen three days ago.

Eliza and Henrietta Huszti, both 32, were last seen on CCTV in the city’s Market Street at Victoria Bridge at about 2.12am on Tuesday.

The siblings were captured crossing the bridge and turning right onto a footpath next to the River Dee in the direction of Aberdeen Boat Club.

Henrietta Huszti. Pic: Police Scotland
Image:
Henrietta Huszti. Pic: Police Scotland

Eliza Huszti. Pic: Police Scotland
Image:
Eliza Huszti. Pic: Police Scotland

Police Scotland has launched a major search and said it is carrying out “extensive inquires” in an effort to find the women.

Chief Inspector Darren Bruce said: “Local officers, led by specialist search advisors, are being assisted by resources including police dogs and our marine unit.”

Aberdeenshire Drone Services told Sky News it has offered to help in the search and is waiting to hear back from Police Scotland.

The Huszti sisters. Pic: Police Scotland
Image:
CCTV of the sisters. Pic: Police Scotland

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The sisters, from Aberdeen city centre, are described as slim with long brown hair.

Police said the Torry side of Victoria Bridge where the sisters were last seen contains many commercial and industrial units, with searches taking place in the vicinity.

The force urged businesses in and around the South Esplanade and Menzies Road area to review CCTV footage recorded in the early hours of Tuesday in case it captured anything of significance.

Drivers with relevant dashcam footage are also urged to come forward.

CI Bruce added: “We are continuing to speak to people who know Eliza and Henrietta and we urge anyone who has seen them or who has any information regarding their whereabouts to please contact 101.”

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Britain’s gas storage levels ‘concerningly low’ after cold snap, says owner of British Gas

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Britain's gas storage levels 'concerningly low' after cold snap, says owner of British Gas

Britain’s gas storage levels are “concerningly low” with less than a week of demand in store, the operator of the country’s largest gas storage site said on Friday.

Plunging temperatures and high demand for gas-fired power stations are the main factors behind the low levels, Centrica said.

The UK is heavily reliant on gas for its home heating and also uses a significant amount for electricity generation.

As of the 9th of January 2025, UK storage sites are 26% lower than last year’s inventory at the same time, leaving them around half full,” Centrica said.

“This means the UK has less than a week of gas demand in store.”

The firm’s Rough gas storage site, a depleted field off England’s east coast, makes up around half of the country’s gas storage capacity.

Gas storage was already lower than usual heading into December as a result of the early onset of winter.

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Combined with stubbornly high gas prices, this has meant it has been more difficult to top up storage over Christmas.

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UK’s first taxpayer-funded injection room to open in radical move to tackle drugs epidemic

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UK's first taxpayer-funded injection room to open in radical move to tackle drugs epidemic

Glasgow has been a city crying out for solutions to a devastating drugs epidemic that is ravaging people hooked on deadly narcotics. 

We have spent time with vulnerable addicts in recent months and witnessed first-hand the dirty, dangerous street corners and back alleys where they would inject their £10 heroin hit, not knowing – or, in many cases, not caring – whether that would be the moment they die.

“Dying would be better than this life,” one man told me.

It was a grim insight into the daily reality of life in the capital of Europe’s drug death crisis.

Scotland has a stubborn addiction to substances spanning generations. Politicians of all persuasions have failed to properly get a grip of the emergency.

But there is a new concept in town.

From Monday, a taxpayer-funded unit is allowing addicts to bring their own heroin and cocaine and inject it while NHS medical teams supervise.

A dirty needle thrown less than 100 metres from the new injection centre
Image:
A dirty needle thrown less than 100 metres from the new injection centre

It may be a UK-first but it is a regular feature in some other major European cities that have claimed high success rates in saving lives.

Glasgow has looked on with envy at these other models.

One supermarket car park less than a hundred metres from this new facility is a perfect illustration of the problem. An area littered with dirty needles and paraphernalia. A minefield where one wrong step risks contracting a nasty disease.

Drugs paraphernalia in a supermarket car park in Glasgow, near the new facility
Image:
Drugs paraphernalia in a supermarket car park in Glasgow, near the new facility

It is estimated hundreds of users inject heroin in public places in Glasgow every week. HIV has been rife.

The new building, which will be open from 9am until 9pm 365 days a year, includes bays where clean needles are provided as part of a persuasive tactic to lure addicts indoors in a controlled environment.

There is a welcome area where people will check in before being invited into one of eight bays. The room is clinical, covered in mirrors, with a row of small medical bins.

Clean needles are provided to lure addicts to inject in a controlled environment
Image:
Clean needles are provided to lure addicts to inject in a controlled environment

One of the eight bays users can inject in
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There are eight bays users can inject in

We were shown the aftercare area where users will relax after their hit in the company of housing and social workers.

The idea is controversial and not cheap – £2.3m has been ring-fenced every year.

The aftercare area
Image:
The aftercare area

Read more: ‘Dying would be better than my £1,000 a month heroin addiction’

Authorities in the city first floated a ‘safer drug consumption room’ in 2016. It failed to get off the ground as the UK Home Office under the Conservatives said they would not allow people to break the law to feed habits.

The usual wrangle between Edinburgh and London continued for years with Downing Street suggesting Scotland could, if it wanted, use its discretion to allow these injecting rooms to go ahead.

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The stalemate ended when Scotland’s most senior prosecutor issued a landmark decision that it would not be in the public interest to arrest those using such a facility.

One expert has told me this new concept is unlikely to lead to an overall reduction in deaths across Scotland. Another described it as an expensive vanity project. Supporters clearly disagree.

The question is what does success look like?

The big test will be if there is a spike in crime around the building and how it will work alongside law enforcement given drug dealers know exactly where to find their clients now.

It is not disputed this is a radical approach – and other cities across Britain will be watching closely.

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