DOT in U-turn over truck confiscation
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by Charles Young • The haulage industry is accusing the Government of hypocrisy for deciding to impound trucks caught carrying illegal immigrants—in the same week that it dropped plans to seize trucks run without an Operator's Licence.
Last week Immigration Minister Mike O'Brien said that hauliers who fail to pay the proposed 1:2,000-per-immigrant fine will face impounding under the Immigration and Asylum Bill. This bill is expected to go through early in the next Parliamentary session.
"Some lorry drivers claim not to know when they have people aboard," says O'Brien. "But when the authorities here make that discovery it will be too late...the lorry will not be released until the driver or owners either pay the money or demonstrate their ability to pay within a reasonable time."
O'Brien's statement follows the Department of Transport's admission that long-awaited plans to impound cowboy hauliers' trucks are unlikely to go through. Despite launching a consultation exercise on impounding last year, it now admits there is no scheduled parliamentary time for the necessary legislation. Impounding is unlikely to come in via a Private Members' Bill—so far, no MP has taken up the cause.
The Road Haulage Association says: "We cannot understand how the Government can find parliamentary time to penalise innocent hauliers who discover stowaways in their vehicles but cannot find time to crack down on the death trucks that are undermining our industry."
Freight Transport Association director David Green has written to O'Brien rebutting his claims on BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the industry is ignoring the problem of stowaways. "As you repeatedly imply that it is easy for drivers to detect whether there are stowaways on board," says Green, "one wonders why your immigration officers are not able to detect the offenders at the port of entry and what actions you are taking to tighten the regime."
A Parisian driver caught smuggling four Somalian immigrants into Dover has been jailed for 18 months.