Mandy Appleyard
6 Jan 2020, The Sun
FORCED by a violent father into begging on the streets at 11, trafficked into Britain by Albanian gangs at 15 to endure slave labour, mugged then put into a children’s home – Samet Mata’s short life has been more traumatic than most people can imagine.
Now 18 and facing deportation back to his native Albania, Samet arrived in Bristol by lorry three years ago after being trafficked into Britain to work in one of the modern-day slavery industries.
Samet Mata with his foster dad John Stokes - Samet now faces deportation to Albania after a gang trafficked him into Britain as a slave
Samet Mata with his foster dad John Stokes - Samet now faces deportation to Albania after a gang trafficked him into Britain as a slaveCredit: change.org
His fortunes changed when he managed to escape the people smugglers and eventually found safe haven with a loving foster family.
But not all the young Albanians arriving here are so fortunate.
Countless youngsters have fallen into a grisly life of crime.
Smuggled slaves
Albanians being smuggled into Britain before being caught in Gent, Belgium
Albanians being smuggled into Britain before being caught in Gent, BelgiumCredit: AFP
Klevis Drazhi was made to sell drugs by the Albanian Mafia after he came to the UK illegally in the back of a lorry
Klevis Drazhi was made to sell drugs by the Albanian Mafia after he came to the UK illegally in the back of a lorryCredit: City of London Police
Endrit Vishaj entered the UK illegally aged 16, hidden on a lorry that took him to the Midlands.
Now, 18, he is serving a four year and four month jail sentence for dealing cocaine.
He was caught in a car park driving a BMW in which the police found two kilos of high quality cocaine worth £200,000 in a carrier bag with £55,500 cash - as well as his £1,000 fee for the job.
Similarly, Klevis Drazhi, 20, was caught with 11 wraps of cocaine in London and jailed for 18 months, claiming he was coerced into supplying drugs by a member of the Albania mafia after illegally entering the UK on the back of a lorry.
Alfred Hamzaj, 22, was jailed for eight months for dealing in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, after being caught with four kilos of cannabis.
He said he had fallen into crime after losing his job at a hand car wash because of his illegal immigration status.
Increasing numbers of Albanians just like these young men are smuggled illegally into the UK with the promise of earning thousands of pounds from selling and running drugs for gangs.
Cocaine cash
Albanian gangsters post pictures of their ill-gotten gains on social media
Albanian gangsters post pictures of their ill-gotten gains on social media
Shockingly, some parents in Albania are arranging for their teenage sons to be trafficked to Britain so they can join organised crime gangs controlling large tranches of the cocaine market here.
Tamara Barnett, from the Human Trafficking Foundation, says: “There is a real sense of hopelessness in Albania.
"One in two women experiences domestic violence, and violence against children is very high.
“The family might be involved, wanting to use their child to earn money, or they might want to give that child better opportunities overseas but then it all goes wrong when they get here.”
Court records show teenage Albanians who mostly entered the UK hidden in lorries have been prosecuted in towns and cities across the country after being caught with drugs worth as much as £200,000.
According to the National Crime Agency (NCA), Albania is the biggest single foreign source for people trafficking into the UK.
Some 947 cases were referred to it in 2018 - a rise of more than 50 per cent since 2015.
International law enforcement specialist Steve Harvey says the majority of Albanian boys and young men are trafficked with the complicity of their parents and the promise of big sums of money by the traffickers.
“The traffickers and exploiters promise them money, a lot of money, and they promise them a job or when the boys are minors, they promise them accommodation, or clothes, so things that they need to have,” an anonymous source told a Home Office inquiry.
In some cases family members are directly responsible for the recruitment and exploitation of male trafficking victims.
Some are smuggled here on lorries, many secure fake passports and come in by car or ferry.
Albanian Mafia
One London-based Albanian gang called the 'Hellbanianz' have shared pictures of their guns online
One London-based Albanian gang called the 'Hellbanianz' have shared pictures of their guns online
They've also unashamedly shown off their performance cars bought with blood money
7
They've also unashamedly shown off their performance cars bought with blood moneyCredit: Instagram
Police sources have warned that Albanians illegally flooding into the UK have provided a ready-made workforce for crime groups.
Known as the Mafia Shqiptare, the groups work by their traditional codes of "besa" - to keep promises - and "kanun" - the ancient blood feud laws.
Dozens of Albanian drug lords have been arrested and jailed across Britain in recent years.
Albanians now make up the second highest total of foreign nationals in UK jails at 760,433 of who are in for drugs offences - just a handful behind Poland on 787 - despite only tens of thousands living in the UK compared to almost a million Polish people.
Hardened gangs, often armed with guns, promote their lifestyle to teenagers in Albania.
They include the Hellbanianz street gang of Albanian boys in south London.
They use social media to entice new recruits, sending messages boasting of their success with money, flash cars, fat cigars, women and jewellery.
Every week Albanian gang masters make local newspaper headlines after being caught dealing drugs, smuggling huge shipments of cocaine direct from Europe.
The drug is at its cheapest since the 1990s and purer than it has been for a decade.
Thousands of Albanians arrived in the UK in the late 1990s and early 2000s, many of them claiming to be Kosovan.
Many took jobs as door staff in London's sex and vice trade then took over prostitution rackets, moving into smuggling people, guns and drugs into the UK.
They also began dealing cannabis, growing potent strains of the drug here using slave labour.
'His dreams are shattered'
Samet Mata now awaits deportation to Albania - where it's feared his traffickers will prey on him once again
Samet Mata now awaits deportation to Albania - where it's feared his traffickers will prey on him once againCredit: change.org
Now they have penetrated the UK's £5billion cocaine trade by building direct ties with suppliers in Latin America.
Some Albanian families send their children to the UK and overseas for the best of reasons: they want to give them the chance of a decent education and future.
But this has created a lucrative trade for smuggling gangs who can charge families up to £15,000 to get their children into the UK.
One 23-year-old Albanian paid €5,000 to be smuggled into the UK where he wanted to study and find a job.
Unable to survive financially, he started selling cannabis and small quantities of cocaine for a gang but was caught and deported back to Albania.
Now with a criminal record and limitations on his right to travel, the future looks bleak.
By contrast, Samet Mata has managed to forged a new life here in the UK after the neglect, beatings and abuse of his childhood in Albania, though he does suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Now studying carpentry at college, he is living a better life than he ever knew in his homeland.
Yet because he is now 18, the Home Office intends to deport Samet back to Albania.
NEWS
EXCLUSIVE
TORTURED CHILD I was locked in a cellar until I was 13 where my dad beat and stabbed me
BRUTE'S BLOODSHED Executed Iran general was James Bond, Rommel & Lady Gaga in one evil man
COMMENT
BRACED FOR REVENGE Trump's execution of Iran general is biggest security event since 9/11
EXCLUSIVE
DR DEATH Body of 'wife' in Dr Crippen's cellar 'was a man & may have been planted by cop'
ODD LANG SYNE Most bizarre New Year traditions from partying in graveyards to hurling sofas
His foster father John Stokes has taken in more than 60 children in 30 years at his home in South Gloucestershire and is spearheading a national campaign to stop Samet being forced back to Albania.
“Since Samet came here to join our family, he’s really thrived," he says.
“Tragically, his dreams are now shattered. It is a desperate situation. If he goes back to Albania, he will fall straight back into the hands of those who trafficked him here to work in the first place.
“He’ll either end up being sent to work as a slave somewhere else, or worse, disappear because there will be no one looking out for him."
Play Video
Albanian cocaine gangs flaunt Lamborghinis and wads of cash in rap video
Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
Comment now
TOPICS
News Features
Don't play this game if you are under 40 years old
VIKINGS: FREE ONLINE GAME
Sponsored Links.
The Must-Play Empire Game of the Year
GREPOLIS - FREE ONLINE GAME
New WiFi Booster Stops Expensive Internet in Albania
WIFI SUPERBOOSTER
Sponsored Links.
Ky është ‘superushqimi’ për të nxjerrë jashtë të gjitha helmet e trupit!
ELEMINON PARAZITË
People from Albania cannot believe these flight prices
TRIPS SHOP
Sponsored Links.
Ky është superushqimi për të nxjerrë jashtë të gjitha helmet e trupit!
DETOX
Comments are subject to our community guidelines, which can be viewed here.
Icon Comment LoadingLOADING COMMENTS
HELLO!Adele shows off weight loss on beach during holiday with Harry Styles
THE SUN
'BIRTHDAY BATH'Love Island couple Olivia Buckland and Alex Bowen strip off as she turns 26
THE SUN
BALL ACHEDr Pimple Popper removes man's '3rd testicle' after growth developed between legs
THE SUN
Sponsored Links.
Living in Albania? These Are the Richest and Poorest Countries in Europe 2018
FOODELICIOUZ
This game will keep you up all night
MARS BATTLE (STRATEGY GAME)
'I LOVE MY BODY'Jazz Jennings reveals gender confirmation surgery scars in swimsuit photo
THE SUN
by TaboolaMORE FROM THE SUN
'BIRTHDAY BATH'Love Island couple Olivia Buckland and Alex Bowen strip off as she turns 26
The Sun
THAI BITESChloe Ferry sunbathes topless in thong bikini in Thailand & is bitten all over
The Sun
'TORN TO SHREDS'How Iran general had to be ID'd by red ring after US airstrike death
The Sun
GUILTY PLEASUREI worry my partner will find out I pleasure myself watching lesbian porn
The Sun
Promoted Links
PROMOTED STORIES
Don't play this game if you are under 40 years old
VIKINGS: FREE ONLINE GAME
The Must-Play Empire Game of the Year
GREPOLIS - FREE ONLINE GAME
HELLO!Adele shows off weight loss on beach during holiday with Harry Styles
THE SUN
'I LOVE MY BODY'Jazz Jennings reveals gender confirmation surgery scars in swimsuit photo
THE SUN
New WiFi Booster Stops Expensive Internet in Albania
WIFI SUPERBOOSTER
Ky është ‘superushqimi’ për të nxjerrë jashtë të gjitha helmet e trupit!
ELEMINON PARAZITË
BALL ACHEDr Pimple Popper removes man's '3rd testicle' after growth developed between legs
THE SUN
POPULAR ARTICLES
EXCLUSIVE
KISSY PRICE Katie Price kisses son Harvey on the lips as they play games on Thai holiday
LETTING RIC Ricky Gervais rips into 'woke' Hollywood hypocrites & says they'd work for ISIS
BACK FROM HEV-EN EastEnders' Cheryl Fergison reveals plan to return despite Heather's death
CASE CRACKED The Masked singer clues reveal David Beckham is among the secret celebs
HIT THE HAYE Haye knew boxing career was finished just 35 seconds into rematch with Bellew
WARNING
HELL CELL Inside cell where Epstein hanged himself as pics show noose made of sheets
FAMILY TORN APART Mum, 40, found dead by daughter, 9, after falling out of bed in night
INVESTIGATION
PERVS' PLAYGROUND Parents' horror as kids as young as 8 are groomed by paedos on TikTok app
WED THE HELL Debenhams slashes wedding dresses to just £20 and brides are snapping them up
No comments:
Post a Comment