British Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick said Albanians should be banned from seeking asylum in the UK because they come from a "clearly safe" country.
He added that these individuals should be "excluded from the right to seek asylum," warning that current levels of immigration to his country were "unbearable," according to British news agency BA Media.
These statements came at a time when the Home Office refused to comment on a report by the "Sunday Times" newspaper that ministers are working on legislation that could prevent asylum seekers who enter illegally from settling in Britain.
Home Secretary Soila Braverman has reportedly been urging Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to support plans to place every "illegal" immigrant in detention upon arrival.
The government is under intense pressure from Conservative MPs to deal with the issue of people smugglers who use small boats to ferry migrants across the English Channel.
Albanians - whose country is predominantly Muslim - account for more than a third of the 33,000 Channel migrants who arrived in the first nine months of this year, and Jenrick said they are now the "number one priority".