Artan tells the BBC he spent thousands crossing the English Channel, only to be deported back to Albania.
Watch: Albanian man films dingy crossing on the English channel after paying people smugglers for the trip"I didn't seek asylum. I told them I was an economic migrant," said Artan. "They gave us plastic bags with our belongings; I was told tomorrow morning you will arrive in Tirana."
We met Artan in an industrial suburb of the Albanian capital. It isn't his real name as his identity needs protecting for fear of reprisals. In his early 30s, he cut a downbeat figure. "A French police boat appeared 20 minutes into our journey. They accompanied us from a distance of maybe 200m, just observing, which reassured us. They stayed for three hours, maybe more. Then we crossed into UK waters and called British police."
At the peak of the small-boat crisis in October, 4,000 people were being housed on a site where the safe occupancy level is 1,600. The numbers were so high that the Home Secretary Suella Braverman controversially denounced the arrival of Channel-crossing migrants as an "invasion"."I said to the woman interviewing me: 'I know I have entered illegally, but I have not come here for fun. I have come because I want to work. I didn't seek asylum.
He added: "Yes there are legal ways, but I was in a hurry. I went for the quickest and cheapest way. The visa should be cheaper but I needed help with the application and people charge more for that than the dinghy journey."
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