What is Rishi Sunak's five-point illegal immigra8on plan - and why does it target

Albanians?

The prime minister has unveiled a new five-point plan to tackle illegal immigra8on that specifically targets
people arriving from Albania. Rishi Sunak told the Commons on Tuesday that "enough is enough" and that
the system is "not fair". More than 44,700 people have reached the UK by crossing the Channel in small boats
this year, Sky News analysis shows. Mr Sunak said that Albanians accounted for more than a third of arrivals
in the first nine months of the year - or 33,000 - compared to 3% last year. Last month, the government
unveiled a series of joint measures with France to help monitor small boats crossings. The prime minister
said he hoped that together both sets of plans would help to clear the backlog in asylum claims by the end
of next year.

What is the five-point plan?

1. Small boats command

A new permanent unified small boats opera8onal command will be set up, combining military personnel,
civilian capability and the Na8onal Crime Agency (NCA). It will recruit 700 staff and the NCA will also get its
funding doubled for tackling organised immigra8on crime in Europe. Mr Sunak says policing of the Channel
is "too fragmented" and the new command will enable staff to coordinate intelligence and enforcement
beUer.

2. Focus on enforcement
The new command will allow immigra8on officers to focus solely on enforcement - increasing the capacity
working on raiding illegal business premises by more than 50%, Mr Sunak says. Data sharing with the relevant
agencies will also be started again to crack down on migrants working illegally.

3. No more hotels
The government will stop using hotels to house asylum seekers as much as possible. Disused holiday parks,
surplus military sites and empty university halls will be used instead - with space for 10,000 people already
iden8fied. Mr Sunak says this will cost half the amount of hotels.

4. More caseworkers
Numbers of asylum caseworkers will be doubled to triple produc8vity, Mr Sunak says. Staff will be split by
na8onality and the applica8on process will be "radically reengineered" with fewer interviews and paperwork
to reduce the current backlog. Mr Sunak says with more than 100,000 wai8ng for more than a year, he hopes
it will have gone by the end of 2023.

5. Albania deemed 'safe country'

A "new agreement and approach" has been agreed with Albanian officials, including the prime minister. It
includes border force officers being embedded at Tirana airport for the first 8me to stop people trying to get
to the UK illegally. New guidance will be issued for caseworkers that Albania is a safe country, which will mean
the "majority of claims" are rejected and thousands returned on "weekly flights" in the coming months un8l
"all the Albanians in our backlogs have been removed". Some 400 new specialists will work on expedi8ng
Albanian applica8ons "within weeks". The threshold for what is considered a modern slave will be increased
to require "objec8ve evidence - not just a suspicion". […]

Mr Sunak added that once legal challenges have played out in the courts, he plans to restart flying failed UK
asylum seekers to Rwanda.