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Rise in 'clandestines' caught at Port of Calais
Page 6
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CM EXCLUSIVE By Chris Tindall THE NUMBER of stowaways caught trying to enter the UK from the Continent has rocketed, with 14,000 at the Port of Calais alone so far detected this year.
Home Office figures show this is already 2,000 (17%) more "clandestines" than were caught at Calais in either 2007 or 2006.
The figures were given to CM under a Freedom of Information request into the number of 'fence jumpers' that have been caught and detained. Fence jumpers differ from clandestines in that they have already managed to pass through security controls when they smuggle themselves on to lorries.
An operator who can prove a stowaway is a fence jumper doesn't have to pay a civil penalty; but the Home Office admits that it doesn't offer guidance about how to do this Monte Office withholds data on fence jumpers'. CM 31 July).
Following an appeal, the Home Office now says its attempt to withhold figures on fence jumpers was flawed because it doesn't keep records on them. Steve Kirk, Home Office information management service officer, states: "The data withheld from you was in fact the number of 'clandestines' caught by the British authorities at Calais.
"I'm sorry the phrasing of the [UK Border Agency] reply was not as clear as it should be." The Home Office says in 2006, more than 16,000 clandestines were detected at juxtaposed controls, including Calais, Lille, Coquelles, Dunkirk and Brussels; around 12,000 of these were at Calais. This rose to more than 17,000 clandestines in 2007, but the same number at Calais.
So far. in 2008, more than 22,000 clandestines have been detected at juxtaposed controls, with more than 14,000 at Calais.
The Road Haulage Association's head of international affairs, Peter Cullum, says: "if they don't tell us the whole story, we can't help."