LONDON: With Albanians now accounting for between 50 and 60 percent of illegal migrants crossing the English Channel, the UK has thrown a vastly experienced general into the fray.
Lt. Gen. Stuart Skeates, who fought in the Afghanistan War, has been appointed to stem the surge in Albanian migrants, according to The Telegraph.
The general, who also served in the Gulf War and Bosnian War, has become the Prime Minister’s and Home Secretary’s special coordinator on illegal Albanian migration.
He is expected to work with the Albanian government to help tackle the trafficking gangs behind the surge of up to 10,000 Albanians who have crossed the Channel this year.
Britain has signed a deal with Albania to fast-track deportations of foreign criminals to the Balkan state, and Albanian police officers are stationed in Dover to help carry out ID and criminal checks on Channel migrants.
Skeates’ appointment coincides with the first fast-track deportation of Albanian small boat migrants who were removed from Britain within days of arriving across the Channel.
The 12 Albanians were sent home on a charter plane after refusing to claim asylum in a move that the Home Office hopes will act as a deterrent to their countrymen seeking to come to the UK illegally.
The general is the second person with a military background to take a senior role in tackling the Channel migrants. Dan O’Mahoney, a former Royal Marine, was appointed clandestine Channel threat commander in 2020.
UK war general tasked with stopping Albanian Channel crossings
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UK war general tasked with stopping Albanian Channel crossings
- Lt. Gen. Stuart Skeates is expected to work with the Albanian government to help tackle the trafficking gangs
US border agent shoots and wounds two people in Portland
- The Portland shooting unfolded Thursday afternoon as US Border Patrol agents were conducting a targeted vehicle stop, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement
A US immigration agent shot and wounded a man and a woman in Portland, Oregon, authorities said on Thursday, leading local officials to call for calm given public outrage over the ICE shooting death of a Minnesota woman a day earlier.
“We understand the heightened emotion and tension many are feeling in the wake of the shooting in Minneapolis, but I am asking the community to remain calm as we work to learn more,” Portland police chief Bob Day said in a statement.
The Portland shooting unfolded Thursday afternoon as US Border Patrol agents were conducting a targeted vehicle stop, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement.
The statement said the driver, a suspected Venezuelan gang member, attempted to “weaponize” his vehicle and run over the agents. In response, DHS said, “an agent fired a defensive shot” and the driver and a passenger drove away.
Reuters was unable to independently verify the circumstances of the incident.
Portland police said that the shooting took place near a medical clinic in eastern Portland. Six minutes after arriving at the scene and determining federal agents were involved in the shooting, police were informed that two people with gunshot wounds — a man and a woman — were asking for help at a location about 2 miles (3 km) to the northeast of the medical clinic.
Police said they applied tourniquets to the man and woman, who were taken to a hospital. Their condition was unknown.
The shooting came just a day after a federal agent from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a separate agency within the Department of Homeland Security, fatally shot a 37-year-old mother of three in her car in Minneapolis.
That shooting has prompted two days of protests in Minneapolis. Officers from both ICE and Border Patrol have been deployed in cities across the United States as part of Republican President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
While the aggressive enforcement operations have been cheered by the president’s supporters, Democrats and civil rights activists have decried the posture as an unnecessary provocation.
US officials contend criminal suspects and anti-Trump activists have increasingly used their cars as weapons, though video evidence has sometimes contradicted their claims.
Portland Mayor Keith Wilson said in a statement his city was now grappling with violence at the hands of federal agents and that “we cannot sit by while constitutional protections erode and bloodshed mounts.”
He called on ICE to halt all its operations in the city until an investigation can be completed.
“Federal militarization undermines effective, community-based public safety, and it runs counter to the values that define our region,” Wilson said. “I will use every legal and legislative tool available to protect our residents’ civil and human rights.”
