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RFG slams fine plan 0181 652 3689
• The Rail Freight Group has protested to Home Office Minister Mike O'Brien about proposals to impose a £2,000 fine on each illegal immigrant caught in Channel Tunnel trains.
The Home Office has already announced plans to fine hauliers, airlines and ferry companies caught carrying illegal immigrants, and it has not ruled out the idea of introducing similar measures to railways. English, Welsh and Scottish Railways, which has depots at Dollands Moore in Kent and Wembley, deals with 15 immigrants a week.
The Rail Freight Group, which represents the rail-freight industry, argues that policing a rail terminal is a difficult task. Rail Freight Group chairman Tony Berkeley wrote to O'Brien two months ago protesting against the plan for fines, but has yet to receive a reply.
Berkeley says long rail journeys, often including more than one terminus, mean it is difficult to prove who is responsible for smuggling immigrants.
"It is unacceptable that people should be found guilty until proven so," he says. "I don't think the Government has thought it through."