Outcry in our small ports
Our coastline is a soft touch for the people smugglers, say furious locals
ABANDONED on the same beach where 18 Albanians were brought ashore, this boat is feared to have been used to smuggle more migrants into Britain.
Residents of the seaside village of Dymchurch in Kent, said CCTV footage from local businesses showed migrants being ushered up the sea slipway under cover of darkness two weeks ago.
The grainy film was handed to border officials but it did not appear to have stopped people smugglers from targeting the same spot again on Sunday.
Locals said their stretch of coastline was a ‘soft touch’ for gangs whom they feared would continue to bring their human cargo ashore.
Their concerns were echoed by others around the country who voiced fears of unguarded coastline and harbours and a Border Force
‘It’s a worry for all of us’
stretched too thinly without adequate resources.
The Daily Mail told yesterday how traffickers are using small ports, marinas and isolated beaches, targeting the same spots once frequented by smugglers of spirits, tobacco and tea.
Now residents in Dymchurch have told how they have regularly spotted large inflatables like this appearing abandoned on beaches overnight – dumped by the gangs once they have made it to British soil.
Phil Reay, 58, an HGV driver from the village, said: ‘It has been quite regular in the past month. Personally I know of at least three occasions when these boats have appeared on the beach. It’s only now there has been all the publicity about it that it’s finally come to light. It’ll happen again, now they know our town is a soft touch.’ Towed away: Boat from which 18 Albanians were rescued on Sunday Eighteen Albanians and two Britshowing men being ushered up the ons were rescued and brought slipway and to waiting cars and a ashore in Dymchurch in the early Ford Transit van. The empty inflathours of Sunday after their inflataable was found hours later, abanble began to sink. doned on the slipway.
Residents said the abandoned Mr Wools said: ‘The footage shows boat used in earlier attempt, on a group of eight dark-skinned men May 11, appeared better equipped in dark clothing walking along the as it was larger and found packed slipway into two cars and a van, at with life jackets. around 3am.
Mark Wools, 53, who owns the ‘They weren’t wearing life jackets Dymchurch Amusement Arcade, and all of them were dressed in dark told the Mail his CCTV had capclothes.’ He said he had given the tured footage shortly after 3am, CCTV footage to border officials. Another local business owner said she had also handed in CCTV film from that day, which showed two cars and a transit van stopping at the seafront before racing off through the town.
‘Shortly afterwards, locals said they had seen two men in life jackets walking from the beach towards the town centre.
Police were called and examined the boat later that day, and interviewed two men on the beach. The Border Force refused to confirm or deny if it had been given CCTV footage. Ice cream seller Chris Hardy, 62, said: ‘I suspect it’s happened before and will happen again. It’s quite a worry for all of us. When they come ashore they are in a panic, so who knows what they’ll do.’
Union officials have warned that Britain’s coastline is facing one of its biggest ever breaches of borders and that long stretches are left unpoliced. At the moment Britain has just three Border Force cutters to patrol more than 7,000 miles of coast. A fourth is in maintenance and a fifth in the Aegean Sea.
Investigators have found evidence of gangs charging up to £12,000 per migrant, meaning they are unlikely to give up their lucrative trade.
Arrests have been made at small ports from Devon to Norfolk. In Weymouth, Dorset, fishermen said they rarely see Border Force patrol boats, and warned the coastguard helicopter is being scrapped next year, meaning the closest will be in Portsmouth. Paul Compton, 69, said: ‘The whole south coast west of Southsea is completely open.’
In Chichester, West Sussex, 17 Albanians and a British man were detained on a catamaran at the town’s marina last week. Members at the marina said smugglers could see it as an easy target.
Yachtsman Edward Reddish, 69, said: ‘There are no immigration police down here and security is lax so they will more than likely get away with it.’
The East Anglian coast has also been targeted by smugglers, who use its isolated creeks to land in secret. Locally there are fears that cuts to border patrols and policing will leave it vulnerable.
Chris Hobbs, an ex-Metropolitan Police Special Branch officer who worked in border control, warned resources had been redeployed to cover the security threat facing major airports, leaving coastal defences ‘almost non-existent’.
He said: ‘The problem is nobody really knows just how vulnerable the East Anglian coast might be.’
‘Whole coast is completely open’