BRITAIN will pay Albania to take hundreds of prisoners back home to serve their sentences – saving taxpayers thousands of pounds.
Twelve murderers, eight rapists and over 100 found guilty or drug or firearm offences are expected to be sent back to serve the rest of their sentences.
Up to 200 Albanian criminals will return back there to serve the rest of their sentences
Rufat Kasamaj has been given a ten-and-a-half year sentence after he raped a teenage girl
Ministers have sealed a fresh deal with the Eastern European nation to send at least 200 of the most dangerous prisoners in English jails back to Albania.
And they will help modernise the system to get them sent back quicker.
They hope the prison transfer arrangement will help ease pressure on Britain’s overflowing jails, too.
It is understood to include coke thug Erlin Hasa who stabbed a loving dad 62 times – landing him with a life sentence.
And sick rapist Rufat Kasamaj, who attacked a vulnerable teenager in a flowerbed in East London in 2021 will be due to serve another 10 years behind bars in Albania after he is sent back.
One of the killers up for transfer shot his victim in the head in an apparent drug turf war in Hartlepool and will free up nine years of prison bed space if moved back.
The £12million agreement will save around two thirds of the cost of keeping them locked up in the UK.
A prison spot costs £109 a day here compared to just £32 over there.
Justice Secretary, Alex Chalk, said: “The public expects that foreign criminals should serve their sentences overseas – not in our prisons at the expense of the taxpayer.
“This deal will speed up the removal of these offenders and give victims confidence that serious criminals will continue to face justice and spend the remainder of their sentence behind bars.”
As of March this year, there were 1,393 Albanian Foreign National Offenders in prisons in England and Wales.
