Britain's illegal migration route: Within the Albanian camp in Bilbao (Video)

Under the shelter of a fishing center at the side of the Blackbena port, a village 20 miles [20 km] from Bilbaos in northern Spain, some 20 young men from Albania have gathered around the fire to survive below zero night temperatures and cold razor currents that blow from the Atlantic Ocean.

On the way up, smaller groups of boys walk across the dark.

Have you got an umbrella? We're gonna do what we're gonna do, but we don't let you get out of here,” calls out to a young energy guy who's leading a fire conversation with his school accent.

His name is Monday, 26 years old and is desperately trying to smuggle himself into Great Britain.

The period lasts for a month and a half at the improvised camp of the Spanish village of Zierbena and spends its days between the attacks on the port and its blue tent, paved with several foot - smelling blankets. Situated at the foot of the hill, just a few feet from the port siege, the tent houses every night inside of it up to four boys lined up as sardeles.

“I have everything ready there, just to go,” says 26-year-old, willing to do everything not to return to his village “hopeless” in the subsolder area. I know one day I'm going to go into England, but I can honestly tell you that I didn't imagine all this suffering..., he adds.

Dozens of similar tents that distinguish only from color are scattered at the foot of the Blackbena hill. From there, boys watch heavy tonnage trucks parked in anticipation of the branding in port every night and plan how they can sneak into one of them without being caught by the police.

The village of Zierbena houses a section of the port of Bilbao, which lies in the shape of a bow in the Gulf of Biskaya. For more than a year, the port has been identified as the new path for immigrants aiming to cross illegally into Great Britain.

BIRN verified in late November that about 100 boys between the ages of 20 and 30 remained at the port's outskirts for weeks in difficult and deteriorating weather conditions. Albanians make up the largest group among them, and according to an employee of the Bilbao Port Authority, their numbers had been even higher during the summer and autumn 2017.

The interviews conducted by BIRN with a dozen boys from Albania show that the reasons that prompted them to leave their homeland are lack of work and economic conditions to ensure the future. They nurture high hopes for Britain, which seems only a journey away from the port of northern Spain.

The railways of the British Ferris Company that rule three times a week towards the British ports of Portsmuth and Paul are their target. However, illegal climbing into one of them seems an impossible mission.

New Members of the Clandestine 

The Basque village of Zierbena began to revive after French authorities decided to close the Calais jungle camp in France, as well as tighten security measures at the La Manshi Canal. Residents welcomed Albanians, offering them warm house food and tents to spend the night.

After that, dozens of others made their way south to Spain. Meanwhile, the high presence of Albanians is also reported at the ports of the Netherlands in northern Europe.

British authorities are accustomed to the high number of Albanians trying to break the security of their borders more than any other nationality, according to The Guardian.

However, a British Embassy spokeswoman in Tirana told BIRN that the roads they follow are “disturbing” and blamed this criminal groups that stand behind trafficking networks.

“We have long been aware of criminal groups that offer to facilitate illegal access to the United Kingdom,” said the British Embassy.

Each year many innocent people lose their lives because they trust traffickers whose sole goal is to earn money, no matter the safety of those trafficked,” she added.

BIRN verified the presence of networks that facilitate smuggling in both the Zierbena camp and the data that official authorities offer.

But while potential immigrants in Spain see trucks as the only road across, British authorities' statistics show that Albanians detained on the other side of the border had entered through counterfeit documents.

According to the British Embassy in Tirana, about 670 Albanians were detained during 2016-2017 at Britain's opening points after being seized with forged documents. A similar phenomenon that shows the existence of organised trafficking groups has also been observed on Bilbao's new path.

“23 Albanian citizens have been detained in the last three months of 2017 in an effort to reach the United Kingdom through ferrymen leaving Bilbao, using forged documents,” said the British Embassy's spokeswoman in Tirana.

The rising wave of migrants has put the authorities at Bilbao port, truck drivers, as well as the company managing trips from Spanish ports to the British.

A security worker at the port told BIRN on condition of anonymity that daily attacks on the siege have completely deviated from their mission.

“Albanians try to get into the port every night while the authority should control at any moment not to allow them to pass into England,” he said. “History between Albanians and guards in port never ends,” added security officer.

The high number of Albanians on the port's outskirts has forced the other side to increase security measures. Local police and Civil Guard forces have been deployed there, along with a British border police team to cope with the situation created.

The British Ferries company, which operates ferry trips from British ports, has also renewed security measures to prevent the clans from entering the United Kingdom.

Through an announcement on its official site, it calls on truck drivers to show their will and vigilance not to allow the clans to climb their boards.

Any information drivers can provide on the potential activity of the clan passengers would help us keep the ports safe, for the common good,” reported in the British Ferris announcement.

A concrete wall is advancing rapidly to replace the port's porous siege. However, the measures taken have not discouraged dozens of Albanians' dreams of illegally moving to Britain.

The Tonighting Battle With the Police

At the Albanian camp in Zierbena, movements are frequented after midnight. Some of the boys pack their little backpacks, while others start going down the hill with their hands in their pockets.

There's a ferry leaving tomorrow morning, so there's so much movement,“explains Monday.

At 2: 00 a.m. on November 27, 2017, small groups of 2-3 boys approach the siege with nearly 10 feet [3 m] high iron rails on the port, following hardy walks in the middle of trees and poor light resulting from portlights. They cross the first siege without difficulty but have to overcome two more difficult obstacles to get to the trailers.

In the light of the port, boys run back into small groups. Heavy tonnage trucks also move rapidly in the same space with them, but both sides seem indifferent to each other.

In less than 30 minutes, we count about 25 people trying to hide in trucks. But not an hour goes by, and a large group of boys show up at the gate, driven out of siege by two police cars. They tell us none of them could hide.

A 15-year-old from Tropoja who introduced himself as Indri told BIRN that they had located him sneaking into one of the trucks prepared for completion.

I'll be right back in. They have me there every day until I leave,“says he's angry at the harbor security force.

Just a few minutes after being stopped by the police, a second group of boys picks a different direction to try again. They divert efforts from the left side of the port and begin to climb into bars for a second time.

Spanish legislation is generous with Albanian immigrants, who are trying to enter Britain illegally. They are not prevented from staying in the suburbs, nor are they deported after being blocked by police in its spaces.

This has created the carousel effect, as catlike play with the mouse between the clans and the police repeatedly repeats over 24 hours.

Monday told BIRN himself he tries several times a day and has happened to be caught eight times within 24 hours.

It's turned into an obsession, some kind of habit. So much so that I think of the entrance there that one day as I bought some food, I ended up at the dock fence instead of going to the tent,“says, smiling.

Crossing the port siege is not the only obstacle for immigrants. The choice of a truck is also of great importance. The boys are called beautiful “kayoin” those who are full of food boxes, while in loads of iron or other industrial products, their chances are several times smaller.

The November 28th morning finds immigrants again positioned on the hill, observing movements near the ferry that is about to set sail. Some of them are making their last efforts. The nerve game between them and the police is repeated with the same scenario as the night before. But security forces have this once ally and enlightenment.

At 2: 00 p.m., British Ferris ferry lifts anchor and heads toward Portsmouth. None of the boys from Albania have managed to hide in his “barku”.

Traffic Networks

If you want to leave, we can find you someone to burn,” tells us a 25-year-old with a northern accent, as it comes down from a car where two other boys are waiting for it. He presents himself as a mediator and assumes that he has just found prey for the smuggling network of human beings.

The 25-year-old explains that “djegia” is a maneuver to cast tight port safety and, in case it succeeds, costs 4-5 thousand euros per person. After we agree to negotiate, the young man takes us to a second person who starts explaining the scheme as he twists a cigarette with frozen tobacco.

You will enter the truck with two or three other people, who will hide you well in boxes. They themselves will stand in visible places amid burdens. As soon as the control is done in the truck, they find the three of them,” he says. Prolonged body, visual features, and dibra dialects, he too calls himself the third “pal “.

One of the difficulties of the plan is carbon gas measurement equipment, with which port security forces are equipped. But “Intermediation” races that it is impossible for them to dictate how many people have been in the truck.

The price for traffickers in human beings depends on the guarantee. The cost is lower if half of the job is done by itself, while the amount of money increases if the entire scheme is carried out by the network itself.

“... They all prepare it. You go straight into the wheelchair when you're told. Once you get off the truck and you sleep in England one night, then you have to give those guys money, he adds.

The smuggling of human beings is a business that generates enormous income for both criminal networks and their many aides.

A former soldier in London, Astrit, told BIRN that he had been working for several years as a van driver for the clans who arrived in Great Britain with heavy tonnage trucks and paid 300 euros per person.

Astritis does not consider his work as a crime, while describing it as one of the activities of the grey zone Albanians do in London.

I was just getting out of the truck after crossing the Channel and handing them over to their families in a parking lot in Ilford, London,” he explains.

Astrity says it usually transported between 4 and 5 clans from Albania, but also shows cases of 8 people in the van. All of them had arrived there by means of an organized chain in every link.

He says the main role is for drivers of trucks in Eastern countries who deliberately put the clans in cargo boxes or in improvised places for them.

This is 90 percent escaped. They're all organized into pieces,” says Astri. He explains that such trips to narrow spaces are dangerous but not impossible.

“are very narrow through these divisions, but in “firs class” does not lead anyone,” he adds.

In debt to traffickers

In the town of Kruma in northern Albania, Hyshua, 67, and the father of six children lives alone with the sick woman in an apartment on the third floor of a palace. Four of his children live in London, while the other two girls are married.

Almost every Kroma family in Hasi County has a minimum member on the British island. Family members told B If they each paid between 10,000 and 12,000 pounds in traffic networks to enter Britain illegally.

As soon as you earn one day in England, you don't take our month,” says Hysniu, who further claims that the boys have paid off their debts and sided with their families. “That's what this life is like, ” he adds.

Like Hyshua, his associate, Mustafa has all the children in London.

The “Hans are connected to London that the sight is there. Where the old Hasi went besides London, he says the old man in the town's main mall.

But differently does Alex, a 21-year-old from the villages of Shkodra that have been in London for two years. The young man has borrowed 70,000 pounds to realise the British “”, but his free working arm is not enough to pay off.

Paying this amount to enter England is a big mistake. The job is heavy, paying is small, prejudices vary, and it is impossible for me to take any money home to help my family,” he told BIRN over the phone.

Alex has been living for two years in London's 5th area and pays 200 pounds a month for rent from the house he shares with five others. He told BIRN that he works in the wash and sometimes in construction with 30 to 40 pounds of day and that his hands are always killed by heavy work.

The 21-year-old told BIRN that the main incentive to flee to England was his family's difficult economic conditions in the village, but also the photos of his Facebook immigrant friends, who appeared beautifully dressed and in luxurious places. To change his life, Alex says he was contacted by a Lezha smuggler who asked him for 7 thousand pounds-three of which he made advance.

I borrowed the money from my relatives, some from my aunts. He had a long waiting list and we just had to stand by,” he adds.

Exhausted by the wait, Alex and two other companions first set out for the Netherlands and then in Calais, France. He added that there were only 50 euros and 5 pounds in the pocket. In Calais he was reunited with the network that promised him the journey and finally found himself among the vegetable boxes in the cold refrigerator trailer of a Bulgarian license truck with license plates.

We've spent 20 hours inside. When we arrived in England, the truck stopped at an area within the port area of Denver. We have torn our tent a little out of impatience, and when we saw where we are, we ran down. We walked several miles and had no money or batteries on our phone,”, and that experience of travel.

For two years in London, Alex sees himself stuck in the country and treated as worse than Albanian employers. He cannot go back without paying off his smuggling debts in Britain while he sees this impossible despite working every day that he can afford.

“I say with confidence that if I were in Albania once again and without these debts on my back, I wouldn't do that,“he ends.

Stupid research by Reporter. al.