Last week it was Lt Gen Stuart Skeates, the Afghanistan veteran now leading efforts to stem the crossings, who flew in. This week the home secretary, Suella Braverman, was expected for a visit that, it was hoped, might dampen the outrage sparked by her description of Albanians as staging an "invasion" of the UK.
Last Thursday, the row escalated and Albania's prime minister, Edi Rama, compared the British government's rhetoric to "screams from a madhouse".
But the real centre of the dispute that has prompted London to dispatch its delegations is not in Tirana but around 150km north-east, in Albania's poverty-stricken highlands, where many still dream of getting to Dover on the dinghies Braverman is determined to stop.
Once a dumping ground for convicts and political prisoners during Albania's communist era, it is on this hard terrain, within view of the Albanian Alps, that those lucky enough to have a job eke out a living on average pay of just €270 ($270) a month.
Denne historien er fra November 11, 2022-utgaven av The Guardian Weekly.
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Denne historien er fra November 11, 2022-utgaven av The Guardian Weekly.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Finn family murals
The optimism that runs through Finnish artist Tove Jansson's Moomin stories also appears in her public works, now on show in a Helsinki exhibition
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