Friday 18 November 2022 01:53 PM Welcome to Muzhak where EVERY family has a relative sending money to pay for ... trends now

This is the tiny village in the Albanian hills where the comfortable, modern houses have all been built on money sent home by migrants illegally entering Britain.

Picturesque Muzhak has a population of around 1,200 - and in every family there has at least one member – and in some cases up to three – living in the UK.

Over the last 15 years at least 300 of young people born and raised in Muzhak have left the village, which is around two hours north of the capital Tirana, for the UK using trucks, boats and planes for what they say is a 'better life' - and earn six times the wages on offer in Albania.

And with the money they have earned in Britain they have helped fund the construction of dozens of new houses – replacing one storey buildings for lavish three floor homes with central heating.

In the neighbouring town of Burrel, mayor Agrom Malaj told MailOnline that 2,000 young people have left the region in search of work in the past 12 months alone, leaving villages there looking like ghost towns.

'Our region has seen the most people leave and head to the United Kingdom because they see it as a land of opportunity, they can earn a good salary while here options for them are limited, he said.

'Everyone in Burrel and the neighbouring villages has someone in their family who has left for Britain and in some cases all the children of a family have gone leaving only the parents behind.

'If you live here or in the countryside outside the town there is not much opportunity so I don't blame the young people for leaving, we have seen a whole generation of men go.

'It all started about 15 years ago and back then it was with trucks and it was expensive, maybe £20,000 to get into the UK but now it's with small boats and the price has come down, around £3,000 so it's very tempting for them.

'The people who go to Britain send their earnings home and we have families who have rebuilt their houses with the money they have made in Britain.'

It's not hard to see why people want to leave Burrel and the surrounding area, turning it into a ghost town as the average weekly wage for those lucky enough to find a job is £125 compared to £640 in the UK.

A rural backwater where cows and donkeys are as common as people on the pot holed high street which has a surprising number of mobile phone outlets.

Among those who have left are the three sons of Ali and Hike Trumci, who live in their new home built with the wages of their three sons who left Muzhak for the UK entering illegally on trucks and later claiming asylum.

Eldest Artur, 42 is a delivery driver in London while his younger brothers Asim, 36, and Hamit, 29, live in Bath where they are taxi drivers.

Standing in the garden of his new two storey home, Ali pointed at the houses in the picturesque valley below him and said: 'That one was built with money from children in Birmingham, that one from Bristol, that one has children in Liverpool.

'All of the new houses you see in front of you were built with help from family in the UK,' then pointing to an unfinished project he said: 'That one as well that is being built, that is with money from the UK.

'None of us here would have been able to build comfortable new houses like this without the help of our children in the UK and for that we are all

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