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Blame the French!
Page 8
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Just what is it with the Home Office? Is it really above the law? Its latest move to double fines on operators found with asylum seekers on board from £2,000 to £4,000 a head is arrogant, ill-thought-out and, most of all, it fails to tackle the problem. Arrogant because the increase comes in spite of hauliers winning two court cases in which the £2,000 fines were deemed to be "unfair" and "unworkable". III-thought-out because it treats operators as the cause of the problem rather than the victim. And it fails to tackle the problem because it does absolutely nothing to help improve security in northern France. Worse Mill, the Home Office has imposed the increase without any consultation. Why didn't it ask hauliers—who have to face the risk of stowaways on a day-to-day basis—what would actually help solve the problem? The Home Office argues that its £2,000 fines must be working because of a 27% fall in the number of stowaways caught at Dover.
Presumably, this being a government which prides itself on setting targets, it will be aiming for a 54% reduction when fines rise to £4,000. Of course it doesn't work like that. Few hauliers would willingly carry illegal