More than 1,500 protesters gathered at Westminster Bridge yesterday and marched to the Palace of Westminster demanding that the government respect them as people and their human rights, stating that not all Albanians are criminals.
One of them was a man with a sign that read: “I’m Albanian, I’m not a criminal, I work hard, and I pay more taxes than the prime minister’s wife.”
Others held signs saying ‘Suella will be sent to Rwanda’ and ‘We want the British government to apologise’ – a reference to Tory plans to send asylum seekers to African countries. The organizers said that the purpose of the protest was “to protest against the humiliation of the Albanians in Britain”. They added that there was a lot of anger and Albanians accused the British of influencing “the increase in crime in the country”. One of the protesters, Fehmi Shehi, 41, said he was protesting for the first time in his life because of the “insulting” language used by the interior minister.
Mr Shehi, who said he arrived in Britain illegally in 1999 but has been a citizen since 2010, added: ‘I have lived here for 25 years. I moved here and my other half is English, I have three children and I live a happy life. I do not accept that the Minister of the Interior calls us criminals. My children are half Albanian. It’s annoying.
Former Labour spin doctor Alastair Campbell, who has advised Mr Rama, expressed his support for the protests on Twitter.
‘We are taxpayers not invaders’… Albanians living in Britain making clear what they think of our very Right-wing Home Secretary in protest at Parliament,’ he tweeted yesterday.
Sources:
Daily Mail and E Plus News