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Industry pours scorn on asylum figures
Page 12
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• by Micky Taylor The haulage industry has welcomed the 32% reduction in asylum seekers announced this week, but says the government should have acted four years ago to combat the problem.
Home Office data released last week said figures had dropped to 16,000 new asylum claims compared with 23,385 between October and December 2002. But the Freight Transport Association and the Road Haulage Association have poured scorn on the announcement, saying the government should have taken steps to reduce asylum applications far sooner. Both bodies say the figures should be much lower.
"We told the Home Office back in 1999 that it should take steps to improve security and vehicle inspection on UK-bound vehicles in Calais. They refused and insisted that it was the transport industry at fault and the transport industry must deal with it themselves. In reality, transport was the victim', says FTA external affairs director Geoff Dossetter.
While security at Calais has been stepped up, asylum seekers have moved to other ports such as Cherbourg and Zeebrugge, he adds.
'Asylum seekers are definitely moving around and still trying to get through other ports', confirms Michael Keates of Keates Transport, based in Chard, Somerset. He paid out 212,000 in stowaway fines after being caught with illegal immigrants on his truck.
Had the government heeded our warnings and implemented greater security measures at Calais, the number of asylum seekers would be far less than those announced. What about the vast numbers of illegal immigrants that manage to slip through the security net by stowing away in the back of cars or vans?", says Mike Freeman, head of international operations at the RHA.
Last Autumn the Prime Minister pledged that the monthly total of asylum applications would be halved to 4,450 by September this year.
• The trial of eight Chinese suspects charged with smuggling immigrants from China into Britain, via the Netherlands and Belgium, is to open in Rotterdam, says BBC Online. Four of the suspects are charged in connection with the deaths of 58 Chinese immigrants who were found dead in a truck in Dover in 2000.