Fake coronavirus travel document warning

About 100 people a day are being caught trying to enter the country with "fake Covid certificates", MPs have been told.

An immigration workers union chief has also warned the fake documents – claiming a someone has has had a recent negative test result – are "very easy" to forge and there is no way of knowing how many more are being missed.

Lucy Moreton, professional officer for the Immigration

Services Union (ISU), also said there is "little to no" evidence on how well people are adhering to quarantine rules.

Ms Moreton told the All Party Parliamentary Group on Coronavirus that around 20,000 people are coming into the country each day – the majority of them hauliers.

They must provide proof of a negative test taken in the three days before departure - which can be shown to border agents as a printed document, as an email or text message.

Asked how border agents are able to verify proof of a negative test, Ms Moreton said: "We're not, it's predominately taken on trust. We get 100 or more fake Covid certificates a day."

Europol warned earlier this year about the illicit sale of false negative Covid test certificates.

Ms Moreton added: “We catch them if there is a spelling error somewhere, but many certificates are in a foreign language which could makes them trickier to spot.”

She said documents are checked against a series of code numbers but "these things are very easy to knock up electronically unfortunately".

Asked how many could be falling through the cracks, she added: "It's inherently unknowable.”