Hundreds of Albanian migrants sent back under ‘gold-standard’ deal – but many have absconded or still in hostels, says Jenrick
Hundreds of migrants have been returned to Albania under a “gold-standard” deal with the country, says immigration minister Robert Jenrick.
It compares with more than 12,000 Albanians who crossed the Channel on small boats last year, according to official figures.
Mr Jenrick initially said “thousands” of illegal migrants were being returned to Albania, before clarifying that “hundreds” had been returned since the agreement was signed six months ago.
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Speaking to Sky’s Sophy Ridge, he said it was still “early days” and that “spurious last minute claims” had held up deportations – but admitted many others were currently in hotels or had absconded.
Mr Jenrick was asked: “How many people who’ve arrived on small boats have been returned to Albania?”
He replied that “thousands of Albanians are returning to Albania”.
Pushed on whether the figure included criminals – rather than just those who had crossed the Channel, he added: “Well, there are hundreds of Albanians who’ve arrived who have been placed on those flights.”
The government said in April that “over 1,000” Albanians had been returned since December’s deal.
However, the figure included “failed asylum seekers, foreign national offenders and voluntary returns”.
Mr Jenrick called the deal a “gold-standard” agreement that was also “significantly” reducing the number of people trying to get to the UK illegally.
Rishi Sunak and his Albanian counterpart, Edi Rama, agreed in December to enhance cooperation in three areas, one of which covered the fight against organised crime and illegal immigration.
Top nationalities arriving via small boats, as a percentage of arrivals 2018 to 2022. Pic: Home Office
The deal included setting up a joint task force to “manage illegal migration of Albanian citizens to the UK”.
Mr Jenrick also told Sky News that a separate deal with France had seen a “big increase in the number of interceptions” of small boats – with 33,000 migrants prevented from crossing.
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The prime minister has made stopping illegal migration one of his five pledges to the British people.
The Albanian prime minister told Sky News earlier this year that Downing Street had showed “important signs of regret and embarrassment” over language used by ministers.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman has previously spoken of “Albanian criminals” crossing the Channel and likened the influx of small boats to an “invasion”.
Mr Jenrick has also said before that Albanians should be excluded from the right to claim asylum.
Elon Musk could be on track for a $1trn pay packet.
Tesla shareholders have approved the whopping financial package for the CEO – who’s already worth an estimated $491bn – if he hits a series of ambitious targets over the next 10 years.
But that $1trn figure (or £761,910,000,000) – which is both one thousand billion and one million million – is almost impossible to imagine for most people.
Even so, we have drilled down into the numbers and examined what you can do with a trillion US dollars – and it turns out, quite a lot.
Show me the money
Laid end to end, a trillion one-dollar bills would cover a distance of approximately 156 billion metres.
That could wrap around the equator 3,890 times, easily reach the sun from Earth (around 149.6 million km) or loop from Earth to the moon 405 times.
That many one-dollar notes could cover a massive area (roughly 10,339 km squared), meaning you could blanket nearly all of Lebanon or Jamaica in bills.
Spend it on sport
You could splash out on virtually all of the world’s major sporting leagues.
The clubs which make up the Premier League are relatively cheap ($30bn), and even when snapping up the UEFA Champions League clubs and the big five top divisions of Spain, Italy, Germany, and France, there’s still $858bn left in the kitty.
The four major US sports leagues for ice hockey, baseball, basketball, and American football (NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL) have a rough valuation of $544bn, according to Sportico.
But then add the IPL cricket league ($120bn) and F1 ($23.1bn) and Musk still has change from an estimated total spend of $829.7bn.
Elon Musk is in the money if he hits targets set by Tesla’s shareholders. File pic: AP
Take over Tesla’s rivals
He could buy up the top 15 largest publicly traded automakers (excluding Tesla) by market capitalisation.
They would include firms like Japan’s Toyota ($275bn), Chinese automaker BYD ($120bn), and luxury brands like Ferrari ($81bn) and Mercedes-Benz ($62bn), as well as BMW ($52bn), Volkswagen ($50bn) and Ford ($48bn).
But there would still be a little change left over; the total bill would be an eye-watering $992bn.
Buy up San Diego
He could buy up every single residential property in San Diego County – valued at a total of $1trn. Seattle is just slightly out of reach at $1.1trn, according to recent data from real estate firm Zillow.
But if he wanted to buy big – there is always Tennessee. The total value of homes in the US state is estimated at $957bn. Or there is Maryland, which at $1.01trn could be bought if he can find a little more cash behind the sofa.
Sadly, he would struggle to scoop up London’s entire housing stock, which in February was valued at just under £2trn ($2.53trn), according to agents Savills.
Cities like New York ($4.6trn) and Los Angeles ($3.9trn) are also not within his budget, hosting America’s most expensive residential markets.
Do something charitable?
There is always the possibility Musk could follow in the footsteps of Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who intends to give away 99% of his vast fortune over the next 20 years.
He could give every single man, woman, and child in the US a share of his cash pile. They would receive approximately $2,917.32 (£2,223.29), based on a population estimate of 342.7 million.
Although it would be roughly $14,348.79 (£10,935.20) for every person (roughly 69.6 million) in the UK.
If he wanted to give the entire globe an early Christmas present, then based on the rough world population estimate of 8.2 billion, everyone would receive $121.80 (£92.87).
Pay off the credit card
With $1trn, he could instantly rewrite history and erase debt interest payments and the government debt from dozens of the world’s sovereign nations.
Or Musk could wipe out the debts of Singapore ($1trn) or South Korea ($0.99trn) in one go, according to figures from the International Monetary Fund’s latest World Economic Outlook (Oct 2025).
But when it comes to the biggest debt-laden countries, $1trn would not even touch the sides.
The US has $38.3trn of government debt (just over one third of the total global debt pile) while the UK has a modest $4.1trn.
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