BORDERS? WHAT BORDERS?
How hard IS it to enter Britain illegally? In a unique TV experiment, all these people tried to smuggle themselves in. Shockingly in every case, and with every method, it was worryingly easy
THEY are paragons of middleclass respectability. Carolynne and David have worked diligently, lived blamelessly and never had so much as a speeding ticket, let alone committed a serious criminal offence.
Yet the grandparents from Berkshire — Carolynne, 62, worked for 35 years in the NHS as a trauma nurse; her husband David, 66, is a retired businessman — have just become people smugglers.
The idea seems preposterous. ‘We come from a generation that respects authority. Growing up, we did as we were told,’ says Carolynne. ‘We didn’t cycle on the pavement if a policeman told us not to. We’ve never broken the law.’
So they are the least likely couple to have colluded in a flagrant deception. Yet Carolynne hid without her passport in their hired motorhome — secreting herself in a compartment under the sofa — while David drove from France to the UK without admitting he had a stowaway on board.
They collaborated in the ruse as part of an experiment to be aired next week in a twopart programme on Channel 4. In it, eight British citizens were smuggled by car, lorry, dinghy and motorhome from ports in Europe back into the UK without their passports. Not one was caught. The Government insists our borders — which thousands of people cross every day — are secure. Yet it is a little over a week since 39 people from Vietnam, believed to have been smuggled into the UK, were found dead in a lorry trailer in Essex.
This harrowing tragedy was proof both of the desperation of would-be migrants and the unscrupulousness of people traffickers.
AND as Britain prepares to leave the EU, the TV experiment is timely. If David and Carolynne — unpractised in dishonesty — could cross two customs borders without incident, how much easier would it be for professional traffickers smuggling drugs, arms or asylum seekers? Carolynne took part in the test, she says, to assuage her concern that criminals are coming unchecked into Britain.
‘I want this country to be as safe as possible. As a grandmother of four, I want to be sure everyone coming here is known,’ she says. ‘I want to be reassured that our borders are safe.
‘In fact, I found it was disconcertingly easy to get through with only the most cursory of checks. I wanted to be found. I wanted to discover that immigration officials were doing their job. I’d have been proud to spend some time in detention if it proved our borders were being policed.
‘I felt relieved because I was anxious about being caught but angry at how simple it all was.’
Carolynne, a Remainer, is sympathetic to the plight of refugees from war zones and oppressive regimes but takes a different view of economic migrants who, she contends, should ‘earn their right’ to come into this country.
David, a Brexiteer, who ran his own loft-fitting business before becoming a hypnotherapist, confesses he doesn’t know if leaving the EU will encourage or deter migrants trying to enter Britain without permission.
He and his wife set off from Caen in northern France — a popular route for illegal immigrants since security at Calais was tightened. They took their motorhome by ferry to Portsmouth.
‘I set out feeling pretty confident someone would stop us,’ says David. ‘But as we got farther along, I began to think our borders aren’t as secure as we think. I was shocked at how easy it was.’
Although he concedes that he — a pensioner from Middle Britain, neatly barbered and dressed in smart casual clothes — doesn’t look like a seasoned criminal, he points out that neither did the two British OAPs, Roger and Sue Clarke, who were jailed two months ago for trying to smuggle cocaine worth £1 million into Britain on a cruise ship.
In the TV programme, viewers see the couple pass unhindered through French security, telling themselves there are bound to be more rigorous inspections when they get to border control at Portsmouth.
They are accompanied by two TV producers masquerading as fellow travellers, and filmed with the aid of a hidden camera.
Six hours on, having crossed the Channel, they approach passport control in England. Carolynne hides herself more securely, curled up in a small cupboard under the sofa, but the checks are only cursory.
At this point, David starts to worry about the possibility that he may be forced to lie. ‘It would be difficult to avoid the question: “Is there anyone else in the van?” I suppose I could pretend my hearing aids aren’t working, or just not answer directly and say “this is all of us”.’
As it was, he had no need to employ such tactics. ‘The only challenge I had was from the immigration officer at Portsmouth who asked if I’d locked the vehicle when I left it to go on deck and whether it was still secure on my return. That was it.’
‘They didn’t even take a cursory look inside,’ adds Carolynne. ‘I’d have been a bit reassured if they had opened the door.
‘They didn’t appear to be shortstaffed. And I wouldn’t have minded waiting an extra half an hour to be checked.’
David adds: ‘There were five or six immigration officers lined up as we drove out. It wasn’t very busy.
‘I know it would be impractical to search every vehicle. I realise, too, that the Border Force rely on intelligence and technology. But I still wonder if they are as diligent as they could be.’ As they glide into Hampshire unhindered, David observes: ‘We’re through, Carolynne. That’s absolutely crazy.’
He adds: ‘We’re just two old people in a standard camper van. But if we’d kitted it out properly, adapted it, we could have brought in several illegal immigrants.’
Their success was no unlikely aberration. For while Carolynne was being smuggled into Britain without her passport, journalist Khurram, from Yorkshire, was trying to get into the UK from Holland using a passport borrowed from a friend.
The fraud — often used by criminal gangs bringing drugs and weapons into the country — relies on the phoney passport holder looking similar to the passport’s real owner. But Khurram’s face bears not even the slenderest resemblance to his friend’s.
He is pretty certain an officer will
spot the fraud, particularly as the borrowed passport is biometric, so when it is scanned a high-resolution image of the holder should appear on a screen, to be verified against the person carrying it.
‘If the officer on the day does his job properly, I’ll be caught,’ he says.
But Khurram, who is travelling with two other men with legitimate passports, is not detected. He and his companions are waved through at Amsterdam and Newcastle without a second glance.
In Holland, the party, who are making the ferry crossing in a saloon car, are asked if they are carrying ‘weapons, drugs or alcohol’. ‘Oh no,’ they chorus truthfully. they are asked to open the boot. Nothing there.
A policeman approaches. ‘I can feel the intensity of my heartbeat increase,’ says a nervous Khurram. But the officer ambles past and Khurram makes it into the uK.
It is not known how many illegal immigrants reach Britain by employing such methods, but figures suggest that at least 34,000 came into uK last year, while about 223,000 were smuggled into Germany, 129,000 into Italy and 99,000 into France.
under the Geneva Convention, refugees seeking asylum have a right to enter a place of safety, such as the uK, clandestinely. And the routes and methods used can be extremely hazardous — as Asher, 25, an outdoor pursuits instructor from East London, discovered when he crossed the Channel, evading French and uK border controls, on an eight-hour, 70-mile trip in a tiny dinghy.
Border Force deploys six patrol vessels and five cutters to ply the Channel, yet so far this year there have been an estimated 1,200 attempts to cross it illegally. And last December, Sajid Javid, then Home Secretary, declared a ‘major incident’ in the Channel after a spike in the number of migrants trying to enter Britain by water.
‘I’m worried because the boat isn’t safe and there are rainclouds coming in,’ says Asher at the start of his journey. He is an experienced sailing, kayaking and powerboat instructor. Even so, he is frightened in the tiny vessel, which doesn’t even have a seat.
‘to be crossing the Channel in this inflatable dinghy, even with small waves, is nuts,’ he says.
Five hours after he set out, we see him in international waters, 35 miles from land, soaked to the skin and frantically baling out the dinghy. (Days later, an asylum seeker died in an effort to cross the Channel by similar means.)
‘the boat almost sank,’ he admits later. ‘the waves were so big. In open sea, it’s impossible not to be terrified. I was frightened pretty much all the journey. It’s one of the most dangerous ways of crossing the Channel.
‘I’ve seen videos of the boats people traffickers use. they are meant to carry four or five people but they cram in up to 25 and they’re only just sitting on top of the water. they’re so exposed.
‘If you’re not experienced and don’t know what you’re doing, then God speed.’
Asher is ‘sympathetic’ to people who travel to the uK in search of a better life. His grandma, 80, a retired cancer nurse, came over from Jamaica on the Windrush in the Fifties.
‘She came because she wanted a better life,’ he says. ‘We only get one life. We are the lucky ones in a rich country with so many benefits.’
I ask if he was shocked that he made the crossing, arriving safely in Weymouth, Dorset, without being challenged. He says he was not remotely surprised. ‘Border Force is doing its best but how on earth are you going to stop every yacht, dinghy or powerboat crossing the Channel?
‘the border is massive. I’ve got respect for the people trying to police it but they can’t be everywhere at once.’
Indeed, traffickers are trying to outwit the BF by crossing at less intensely monitored routes. Even so, British lorry driver tony, 56, managed one of the most audacious feats of the experiment.
the Calais-to-Dover crossing is one of the most closely patrolled in the world. Yet tony had no difficulty in smuggling through Alim, a hip-hop artist born in Sierra Leone who has lived in Britain since he was eight.
Alim, hidden in plain sight under a blanket in tony’s cab, does not even elicit a raised eyebrow.
Every lorry is checked at Calais, where there are both French and uK border controls. tony is concerned that a heat detector will reveal he has a stowaway. But high-tech scanners are not used on his vehicle.
tony is pragmatic. ‘England is a little island and it can only house so many people,’ he says. ‘I’d like to help everybody but I’ve got to look after my own.
‘As a driver, you’re fined £2,000 if an illegal immigrant is found in your truck.’
WHILE in France, tony watches as asylumseekers wandering near his lorry are led away by officials. Yet Alim, inches behind him, remains undetected.
tony is amazed. ‘You’re up against guards. You’ve got scanners, heat sensors, dog patrols, passport control. I never thought anyone could get through these checkpoints,’ he says.
And at Dover — where checks are being made, but not on every vehicle — tony’s lorry again sails through security unhindered.
Astounded by the ease of what he has just accomplished, he observes: ‘there’s all this security but what did we do? We just stuck a guy behind a seat, put a cloth over him and got through.
‘What we proved is that if even we can beat the system. If you’re well resourced and have infrastructure behind you, it would be easy.’
that is a sobering thought at a time when ruthless criminal gangs are exploiting the desperation of illegal immigrants.
the Home Office has this to say: ‘the Border Force is intelligenceled and targeted at criminals who seek to break the law.
‘All the individuals in this programme were British passportholders. When there is reason to suspect criminality, we carry out rigorous checks, as evidenced by the 50,000 detections and refusals at borders last year.’
SMUGGLED starts on Monday at 9pm on Channel 4.