'Break seals at ports'
Page 8
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
by Sally Nash • A Dover transport firm is considering telling all its drivers to break the seals on trailers at ports to inspect their loads after discovering illegal immigrants on board one of its vehicles—for the ninth time in the past four months.
EJ Bywater European Transport managing director John Bywater is considering taking action after an incident last week when six Albanians were found hidden in a trailer.
"This has got beyond a joke," says Bywater. The only way to check trailers which are unaccompanied at the start of their journey is to break the trailer seals, he adds, but he realises that not all customers of high-value goods would be happy about the strategy.
Bywater argues that something has to de done if the port of Zeebrugge continues to drag its heels over its pledge to bring in heat-seeking detectors. Smuggling illegal immigrants is overtaking drugs trafficking as the scourge of the haulage industry.
One police officer has told Commercial Motor that people-smuggling gives criminals better returns than drug-running but it carries a far shorter jail sentence if the are caught and convicted.
• Bywater says trailer damage and rejected loads due to stowaways has cost the company about £2.000. In one incident supermarket giant Tesco refused a load because illegal immigrants had urinated in the trailer. Last week's incident happened when a Bywater driver arrived at Biggleswade-based Auld Brothers with his load and six Albanians emerged.
Three of them were restrained in the yard by the Auld brothers—managing director Ken Auld. Derek and Steve—while the other three managed to escape through the gates. They made for nearby fields but were caught within the hour by local police. All six are being held at Bedford police station where they are claiming political asylum.