Tirana protests UK official’s ‘verbal lynching’ of Albanians

By LLAZAR SEMINI
Associated Press

TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Albania has handed a verbal note to the British ambassador to Tirana to protest what it called a “verbal lynching” by a U.K. official in comments about Albanian immigrants in the country. Tirana’s Foreign Ministry’s note Monday expressed “concern on the last statement of the Minister of State for Immigration Robert Jenrick with discriminatory language about Albanians.” On Sunday Albanian Foreign Minister Olta Xhacka said on social media she was “shocked beyond words to hear a minister of state in charge of immigration use such language to secure some extra miserable votes.” More than 10,000 Albanians illegally entered Britain by crossing the English Channel in small boats to seek asylum last year.