HALF OF SMALL PORTS LEFT WIDE OPEN
People traffickers and drugs smugglers face no ‘visible deterrent’
DOZENS of small ports are unguarded – leaving Britain wide open to illegal migrants.
An official report revealed yesterday that nearly half the entry points on the east coast were not visited by Border Force staff for more than a year.
This meant there was no ‘visible deterrent’ to people smugglers or traffickers of drugs and firearms.
David Bolt, who is chief inspector of Borders and Immigration, also found that:
Criminal gangs are so brazen they offer illegal migrants three chances of entering the UK for the price of one;
The number of illegals caught near major ports on the east coast nearly doubled;
Border officials at Harwich in Essex were not checking cars arriving on ferries;
Funding for the Border Force is being cut despite ‘vast and increasing’ numbers of people and goods arriving in the UK;
Staff use Victorian ink technology to take fingerprints from migrants instead of modern scanners.
The report is the latest to warn of the gaping hole in Britain’s borders at smaller ports. The UK terror watchdog has warned this could give terrorists or foreign fighters an easy route in.
It revealed 27 out of 62 small ports were not attended by any Border Force staff over 15 months from April 2015 to June 2016. That period coincided with a vast influx of migrants into Europe.
‘There is obviously too much focus on the major ports,’ said Tory MP Philip Hollobone. ‘This is a fairly obvious gap in the system for illegal migrants to make their way into this country.
‘Clearly we need to refocus our border controls on these weak spots.’
Alp Mehmet of MigrationWatch called for more funding. ‘The chief inspector has identified significant gaps in the east coast border with particularly poor coverage at
‘Feeding the black economy’
smaller ports,’ he said. ‘If these gaps are not plugged, the people smugglers will exploit them to the full, to feed the insatiable appetite of the black economy.’
Mr Bolt suggested the lack of evidence suggesting small ports were being targeted by people smugglers may have been because officials were not there to collect any. He added: ‘ The other likely consequence of long periods of non-attendance by Border Force at particular locations is that there is no visible deterrent to anyone prepared to risk using these spots to land illegal migrants or contraband goods.’
Inspectors also examined five major seaports – Tilbury, Harwich, Felixstowe, Immingham, Hull and Rosyth in Scotland. At Harwich there were no searches of vehicles for hidden migrants. Instead officers relied on checks carried out at Dutch ports, but the report said these were insufficient.
Home Office data showed the number of ‘clandestine arrivals’ at or near the major ports almost doubled between 2014/15 and 2015/16 – from 233 to 423.
The report found a lack of checks on freight. On one day at Felixstowe officers searched only one container yet the port receives 7,000 a day. Checks on suspicious shipments were delayed for months.
Despite the loopholes, cuts to Border Force staff will continue over the next three years, the report found. Mr Bolt said: ‘My inspection of Border Force operations at east coast seaports found that, viewed overall, the fixed immigration control points at the major seaports were efficiently and effectively managed, as were vehicle and freight arrivals at these ports.
‘By contrast, coverage of smaller, normally unmanned, east coast ports and landing places was poor.’
A Home Office spokesman said: ‘We are pleased this report acknowledges that Border Force operations at major seaports are generally efficient and effective.
‘However, we accept that improvements can be made and will be taking forward the recommendations.’