P&O pays for gas checks
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• by Ouy Shepard P&O Stena Line has ruled out increasing its prices next year to cover the cost of compulsory checks for stowaways on its Calais-Dover route.
The company has hired a team of 40 security staff to provide round-the-clock CO2 checks on all trucks and cars. It plans to introduce the checks at Zeebrugge.
Communications director Chris Laming says ferry prices will not rise next year to compensate for the annual bill of £500,000, and the checks are unlikely to affect prices in following years either. "Ft could potentially cost us a great deal more in fines if stowaways are found on our ships," he says. Since April the company has paid £100,000 in fines for carrying stowaways. Laming says it might recoup some of the costs of extra security by winning extra business from hauliers. "Their defence under the Immigration & Asylum Act will perhaps be more guaranteed than it was when checks were done on a random basis," he points out.
Within the first 24 hours of the scheme's launch last week 43 stowaways were found. A further 37 had been discovered by last Tuesday. However the CO2 detectors are not foolproof, Laming admits; "There needs to be a certain level of CO2 in a trailer for the equipment to work, so stowaways
might escape detection if they have been inside for only a short period. We are not saying the system is foolproof, but we are doing visual checks as well. Wood and fruit can also trigger off the probes."
Chris Dakin, MD of Gas Data, which makes the probes, says they are reliable enough to detect one stowaway provided he or she has been there for between five and 10 minutes. "Sometimes, where it's fully loaded, the probe will have to be inserted into the area where the stowaway is hidden," he adds.
French police are understood to have complained to their government about the extra stowaways they are dealing with in the wake of the P&O checks.