Times Claim Albania Will House UK Asylum Claimants Debunked by ‘Mis-Gendered’ Minister

Times journalist Tom Newton Dunn was unabashed by denials from Albania's foreign minister that Tirana had agreed to hold asylum seekers for the UK. He even had the gall to ask his Twitter followers if they believed Olta Xhacka — who he had misidentified as a man — or himself.

Albania's foreign minister has slammed British newspaper The Times for printing "fake news" and mis-gendering her as a man.

Olta Xhaçka tweeted her dismay with falling standards the UK's oldest media outlet on Thursday morning, after the paper printed claims her country would host those seeking asylum in the UK at a cost of £100,000 per immigrant per year.

Not only was the story false, Xhaçka wrote, but it misidentified her as a man.

Same old fake news this time in the front page of a respected paper as The Times!
And btw I am not a "he" but a "she" who has always admired the quality of British media. Sad. pic.twitter.com/UVcaiGt3N3

— Olta Xhaçka🇦🇱 (@xhacka_olta) November 18, 2021

And Albania's ambassador to the UK and Ireland Qirjako Qirko also laid into The Times, accusing the story's author Tom Newton Dunn of deliberately ignoring his categorical denial of the story in a phone call on Wednesday.

"I explicitly underlined that the Albanian Government will never agree to opening of such processing centres for illegal immigrants as this is an act that violates the International Law", Mr Quirko said. "I am really disappointed that he has failed to mention that in his article. This reflects a lack of professionalism and biasness".

The Wikipedia entry for Xhaçka is illustrated with her portrait, and refers to the minister repeatedly as "she".

But Newton Dunn doubled down two hours after the minister's tweet, asking his Twitter followers whether they believed him or her.

Who to believe?https://t.co/RDKnwOjMaF https://t.co/dQQNZopbLx

— Tom Newton Dunn (@tnewtondunn) November 18, 2021

Earlier he tweeted that Justice Secretary Dominic Raab had refused to confirm the story on Times Radio that morning — discrediting his own report.

Asked about talks with Albania to set up off-sure processing centres for Channel crossing migrants, Deputy PM Dominic Raab tells @TimesRadio: "We are looking at international partnerships that will take the processing out of the UK, to reduce the pull factor to the these routes”.

— Tom Newton Dunn (@tnewtondunn) November 18, 2021