Starmer calls Western Balkans Europe’s ‘crucible’ as he kicks off summit

Sir Keir Starmer described the Western Balkans as Europe’s “crucible” as he opened talks with leaders in London that will largely focus on how to tackle the challenge of migration.

The Prime Minister is hosting leaders from the Western Balkan nations of North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo as the UK seeks to agree further measures to bring down the number of migrants arriving illegally.

The UK is in ongoing talks with some of the countries to host so-called return hubs where the UK could send failed asylum seekers before they are deported.

Ahead of the summit, Kosovo has reportedly expressed a willingness to host such migrant hubs, while Albania’s prime minister repeated his rejection of them and Montenegro’s appeared to suggest his country was not planning to host but could be swayed by investment in its rail infrastructure.

Sir Keir Starmer said at the top of the meeting of leaders: “The region has been described as the crossroads of Europe, but so often it has also been Europe’s crucible – the place where the security of our continent is put to the test.”

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker were also at the talks alongside ministers from France, Greece and Italy and the European Commission’s Kaja Kallas.

Sir Keir said talks would focus on security, migration and economic growth and that leaders would discuss how to tackle Russia’s “malign influence”, as well as rooting out corruption and shared issues of migration.

“The Western Balkans has long been a vital transit route for the criminal smuggling gangs.

“You don’t want to see those gangs operating in your territory, and we all suffer the consequences of their action,” he said.

Some 22,000 people were smuggled by gangs last year along routes through the region, which has become increasingly important to tackling illegal migration across Europe.

New UK sanctions on Balkan-based criminal gangs and financiers said to be propping up the people-smuggling trade were announced on Wednesday.

A Kosovan passport forgery ring – the Krasniqi forgery network – is banned from travelling to the UK and frozen out of the UK’s financial system under the measure.

The ALPA Trading FZCO, which is said to process money for smuggling gangs, was also targeted.

At Chatham House on Tuesday, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama repeated his rejection of hosting return hubs, saying “never in Albania.”

Montenegro’s Prime Minister Milojko Spajic said when asked about hosting hubs at the same event that his country was not part of the Western Balkans smuggling route because the railway infrastructure is not developed enough.

Mr Rama asked him if he would host a hub if the UK built railways in his country, to which he replied: “We definitely accept it, if they would invest 10 billion euros into building railways.”

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said he would not get ahead of the talks today.

He said: “I think you’ve got both the Montenegrin and Kosovan prime ministers saying … it’s clear we must use our international partnerships to tackle the shared problem of irregular migration.

“And I’m not going to get ahead of those discussions today, but this is one of the things we’re looking at.”

Ahead of the summit, the Prime Minister confirmed the UK would extend its support for the Nato KFOR peacekeeping mission in Kosovo for another three years until December 2028.

The UK has been a key contributor to the force since 1999.

The UK is hosting the talks that come as part of the Berlin Process set up by former German chancellor Angela Merkel in 2014 to bring the six Western Balkan countries outside the EU closer to the bloc.