Blunkett backs stowaway fines
Page 8
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
• Home Secretary David Blunkett has come under fire from the trade associations for failing to end the unjust treatment of hauliers caught carrying illegal immigrants.
Last week Blunkett announced a raft of new measures intended to stop the tide of stowaways flooding into the country But the Freight Transport Association says that the proposals will not help hauliers and transporters being hit with £2,000-per-stowaway fines.
Plans include the use of new mobile X-ray scanners at Dover and the Eurotunnel terminal at Coquelles, alongside heartbeat sensors currently being trialled and tighter immigration controls in Britain and France.
The Home Office says this will force transport firms to make more efforts to stop people stowing away in their vehicles. It adds that it still plans to press ahead with extending the civil penalties scheme to Furotunnel.
An HA spokesman blasts: The key problem remains that the government is insistent that a system of fining hauliers works. Even if it can clearly demonstrate that there has been a reduction in the number of people staying away as a result of fining lorry drivers it does not make it right to fine innocent people. That's a fundamental injustice which still remains."
The FTA has also written to the Home Secretary in the hope that the worsening situation at the Channel ports will prompt a change of heart over his refusal to meet with the industry. A meeting with Immigration Minister Geoff Hooker has been scheduled for 110ctober.