Britain grateful to Albania for work tackling people smugglers - PM Sunak's spokeswoman

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain has a strong relationship with Albania and is grateful for the work they do to tackle people smugglers, a spokeswoman for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Thursday, after his Albanian counterpart said Britain was scapegoating his country.

Edi Rama on Thursday criticised what he said were derogatory comments by British ministers about a rise in the number of Albanian asylum seekers, saying Britain was falsely targeting Albanians "as the cause of its crime and border problems".

"We have a strong relationship with our Albanian partners. We are grateful for the cooperation of the Albanian government and we remain fully committed to working together with them," the spokeswoman told reporters.

"We want to continue to do everything we can with international partners to break the business model of people smugglers, and we're grateful to Albania for their work with us on this."

(Reporting by Alistair Smout; editing by Michael Holden)