Foreign Office spends £3.75million of taxpayers' money on advertising anti-immigration campaign which claims Britain is 'bigoted' and 'run down'
Millions of pounds of taxpayers' money have been spent on a campaign in Albania which describes Britain as a 'bigoted' and 'run-down' country, it emerged last night.The Foreign Office ran the social media campaign with the aim of preventing Albanians coming to the UK illegally.Videos were posted on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok, featuring Albanian refugees in Britain who complained about how expensive living was and how much discrimination they have faced. They also featured images of closed shops covered in graffiti, run-down flats and piles of furniture lying next to a housing estate.The campaign, which cost £3.75million a year, was overseen by the Foreign Office, and was begun under the last Tory government and continued by Labour.It was started amid an unprecedented rise in Albanian migrants crossing the English Channel on small boats in 2022. Home Office data showed 12,000 Albanians arrived that year, despite the country not being in a state of war, nor being as poor as Sudan or Syria.An internal Foreign Office document, seen by the i Paper, said that the entire campaign failed, as it did not reduce irregular migration from Albania. Videos were posted on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok, featuring Albanian refugees in Britain who complained about how expensive living was and how much discrimination they have faced The Foreign Office ran the social media campaign with the aim of preventing Albanians coming to the UK illegally It was started amid an unprecedented rise in migrants crossing the English Channel on small boats in 2022 (Picture dated May 2024)Read More Inside Britain's Trump-style mass deportation flights The document said: 'There is limited evidence of the effectiveness of a dissuasive communications approach.'Last night politicians and activists criticised the programme. Reform leader Nigel Farage branded the campaign 'an absolute farce,' even though he agrees the Government must do all it can to deter illegal migration.He said: 'It goes along with the whole narrative that Labour hates our country.'In one of the videos, an Albanian graduate called Vera living in the UK says she is working in the hospitality industry, and finding it difficult to adapt. She adds: 'The mindset that people have about Albanians... is not a very positive mindset. To live in England is very difficult.'
Advertisement
Share or comment on this article:
Foreign Office spends £3.75million of taxpayers' money on advertising anti-immigration campaign which claims Britain is 'bigoted' and 'run down'
