Now migrants target UK by stowing away on ships from Spain

ILLeGAL immigrants have opened a new route to sneak into Britain by stowing away on ships in northern Spain.

So far this year 1,765 people have been caught trying to smuggle themselves on to uK-bound ferries or freighters in Bilbao.

This is five times more than police caught in the whole of 2016 attempting to stow away at the port.

There are fears Spain is becoming the latest place used by immigrants as an alternative route to enter the uK illegally, after the closure of the Jungle shanty town in Calais last autumn.

Small makeshift camps have sprung up near the ferry terminal in Bilbao, under motorway bridges and in abandoned buildings. Most of the migrants are Albanian, but some are desperate refugees fleeing war zones in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.

every day police at the port – on the Bay of Biscay – are stopping migrants who attempt to sneak on to passenger ferries or into freight containers.

Police have increased patrols, installed new cameras and motion sensors and reinforced fences in a bid to stop the situation getting out of hand.

Last Monday the civil guard police caught 26 stowaways. In May, 27 migrants were caught in one day trying to board ferries from Bilbao to Portsmouth. In June another 15 were found in a single day.

Many have attempted to board Brittany Ferries vessels, which sail three times a week to Portsmouth, carrying mostly British holidaymakers.

Brittany Ferries’ freight ship Pelican carries around 100 containers twice a week from Bilbao to Poole, Dorset.

Migrants use binoculars to monitor police and to see which containers are being searched.

The officers use carbon dioxide sensors to detect people within the large shipping containers. Police also search cars, caravans and lorries.

A police lieutenant at the port told the newspaper el Pais: ‘Sometimes they hide in the containers twice in the same day. We have increased our security and our controls so that the passage is closed to anybody who has not paid their fare. It’s a heavy workload and it is increasing.

‘The Albanian immigrants are distinct from the refugees. They come with enough money and telephones to last for weeks.’ The migrants can be expelled from Spain, but many are not thrown out.

Bilbao became a focus for people-smuggling mafia gangs after the closure of the Jungle.

In recent months there has been a surge in the number of migrants being brought to southern Spain from North Africa. Some then travel to ports such as Bilbao to try to reach the uK.

roberto Castilla, of Brittany Ferries, said 66 migrants have been arrested in the uK after being caught on ferries from Bilbao. Of those, 35 were sent back to Spain. Ferry firms are fined £2,000 by the uK for every stowaway who reaches Britain – and must pay for the flights back to Spain.

It is not known how many migrants are making the journey without being caught.

A Home Office spokesman said: ‘Working with our law enforcement partners at home and abroad we use intelligence to keep our borders secure.

‘We have also invested in new detection technology and are working with port operators to improve the controlling of unauthorised arrivals.’

‘Enough money to last for weeks’