IN a tiny village in northern Albania, shop owner Sulejman Brati has not had a customer in hours.
He says just a handful of locals come through his doors each day as he struggles to scrape together enough money to live.
Villagers in Golaj in Northern Albania complain that many of the population have moved to the UK
Migration is so rife that the village school loses at least a dozen pupils to it every year
Shop owner Sulejman Brati says there are few local customers and he struggles to make a living
Isuf Dauti was accused of being a major player in an organised crime networkNews Group Newspapers Ltd
The 67-year-old is forced to rely on handouts from two sons he admits live in Britain illegally — one who came in on the back of a lorry and the other who paid smugglers to cross the Channel on a boat.
“Albania used to be known for mineral production, now it’s immigration,” he says sadly.
Welcome to the village of Golaj where residents estimate six in ten of its young locals now live in the UK.
Migration is so rife that the village school loses at least a dozen pupils to it every year and businesses and farmers struggle to find workers as the younger generation chase new lives in Britain.
The majority will come into the UK illegally and on arrival many will be lured into working for Albanian gangsters as they struggle to get jobs without paperwork.
One villager told The Sun: “There’s no gangsters left here because they’re all in the UK.”
EXPENSIVE CARS
In fact, two of Golaj’s “exports” are two brothers who were kicked out of the UK after the National Crime Agency — Britain’s version of the FBI — accused them of being major players in an organised crime network.
Despite apparently having modest jobs in construction and cleaning, Isuf and Fation Dauti lived lives of luxury, spending cash on designer gear in Harrods, driving top-end cars including Bentleys, and renting a £2,700-a-month flat in Chelsea.
There is little wonder Albania’s young are attracted to crime when desperate families proudly boast of their children’s “success” in Britain, asking few questions about where their cash comes from.
In rural areas, it is not unusual to see locals in their twenties and thirties whizzing around in expensive cars with British number plates, particularly Audis and Mercedes. Luxury villas dot the hills but most lie empty.
Sources told The Sun many are built to launder cash from criminal enterprises in Britain.
Golaj is just a ten-minute drive from Has, a town which has earned the nickname Little London because so many of its residents now live in Britain.
According to the former mayor of Has, Liman Morina, every family in the town which is three hours from the capital Tirana, has one to three relatives in the UK.
Avoli Brati and his brother Festir live in London and says there is no future in Albania
New villas are being built with money brought back from the UK often from the proceeds of crime
The nearby town of Has is known in Albanian as ‘Little London’
In Golaj, which has a population of around 4,000, locals say the figure is more like 60 per cent because the only jobs available here are low paid posts in farming or roadside cafes which rely on passing tourists.
Lack of work has led to a mass exodus from Albania which, at its peak, saw around 12,000 arriving in the UK by small boat in 2022 — making up one in three arrivals.
There are no gangsters left in Albania as they are making their lives in Britain
Local Avoli Brati, 34 — no relation to Sulejman — says six out of his 12 family members now live in Britain after making their way illegally.
He says family tradition dictates that one offspring stays at home to help look after ageing parents while the rest usually leave Albania.
“They go to the UK to earn money and send it back to family,” he said.
“They all went illegally on the back of a truck through Dunkirk and Calais but are now legal and working.
“The youngest was three years old when he left and is now 13. There’s no opportunities for them at home because there are no well-paid jobs.”
He adds wryly: “There are no gangsters left in Albania as they are making their lives in Britain.”
His brother Festim, 42, paid £6,000 to get into the UK 11 years ago, hiding under the seat of a lorry while another brother hid under a tarpaulin on the roof.
When we meet in Golaj, the painter and decorator is enjoying a break in Albania to avoid the Tube strikes at home in North London.
The dad-of-three confessed: “Family and friends saved money and sold whatever they had so we could pay the people-smugglers to reach the UK. Now I send money home to help them.
“There’s no future for children in Albania. What’s there to do here? There’s no work and no money.
“I love my country and if I had work that paid well I would stay here. Of course, I worry about the future of Albania and what will happen when all the young people leave, but I can’t stay here.
“My children now get a good education and consider themselves English. I am a hard worker and I don’t rely on benefits and I wouldn’t want to.”
Children are always going missing from school as their parents take them to Britain — about 12 a year, and I can’t find any workmen to do things that need done.
While many Albanians pride themselves on their work ethic, links to criminal and drug gangs are infamous.
One in 50 of the Albanians in the UK were in jail, according to Ministry of Justice figures for last year.
Despite arriving illegally, Isuf and Fation Dauti were initially allowed to stay after marrying women from the EU countries of Latvia and Bulgaria.
‘DESTROYED FAMILY LIFE’
Intelligence from the National Crime Agency in 2021 revealed Fation, 40, was part of an Albanian gang involved in drugs, people-smuggling and money laundering, calling him a “risk to national security”.
Brother Isuf, 33, was said to have taken a “more active” role in the OCG when his brother left Britain.
Both have since been sent back to Albania. The Sun can exclusively reveal that prosecutors in Albania this week seized land and buildings connected to Fation Dauti.
They took control of two shops, a bar in the centre of the Albanian capital Tirana, land and cars including a BMW and Audi.
The pair have two cousins, also from Golaj, who masterminded a gang that smuggled hundreds of illegal migrants, including children, into Britain in the back of lorries.
They charged £13,000 for a seat in the front and £8,000 for the back.
The migrants’ hands and feet were wrapped in plastic bags to avoid leaving traces of DNA.
Former Golaj resident Alket Dauti was jailed for his role in people smuggling operation
Kujdesi Dauti was convicted in connection with people smuggling across EuropeNews Group Newspapers Ltd
Alket Dauti, 38, fought extradition for two years before being extradited to Belgium where he was sentenced to ten years in jail for people smuggling.
He served just half his term before being deported to his native country.
But Alket, who lived in Bromley, Kent, sneaked BACK into the UK and in May this year was jailed for eight months after pleading guilty to entering the country without leave.
Cousin Kujdesi Dauti, 41, has been convicted in his absence by a Belgian court for being part of the same smuggling operation but has fought extradition for seven years.
The construction worker and dad of two is appealing the ruling but his case has been delayed as he awaits sentencing for aggravated vehicle-taking in the UK.
In January, The Sun revealed pictures of Kujdesi enjoying a round of golf as his case crawled through the legal system.
Back in Albania, many of the older generation fear for the future of their country, which was the last Balkan state to escape communism in April 1990.
The country was so isolated, many citizens had no idea the Berlin Wall had fallen in 1989.
The communist regime failed to invest in vital infrastructure such as roads, electricity and clean water and the move to a free-market democracy proved challenging.
It saw high levels of unemployment leading many Albanians to flee abroad, a tradition which continues today, especially in rural areas such as Golaj where many rely on small farmsteads to feed themselves.
One cafe owner told us: “Look around — there are no young people here.
“Children are always going missing from school as their parents take them to Britain — about 12 a year, and I can’t find any workmen to do things that need done.”
Shop owner Juleman Brati, who has five children, reckons 60 per cent of the younger generation have left the village. “They are gone,” he says.
“But if my sons didn’t send money home I would have nothing.
“I haven’t seen them since they left in 2011 and they can’t come back because they don’t have papers to get back into Britain.
“I talk to them on the phone but haven’t seen them in years. I don’t know what will happen to Golaj.
“I only know that my heart is broken and migration has destroyed family life. Under communism we used to have mineral factories — now we have immigration.”
Sun feature writer Grace Macaskill visited the Albanian village of Golaj to speak to localsNo Credit