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Lords committee claims inadequate fencing at Calais

05/03/2008

The House of Lords EU committee has claimed that there is inadequate fencing at the French port of Calais to prevent illegal immigrants entering Britain.

In a report published today the committee claims that as part of a visit to Calais, to compare British and French border controls, inadequate fencing was discovered.

"Our visit to juxtaposed British and French border controls at Calais showed that there are excellent new technologies deployed to prevent illegal migration to the UK," Lord Jopling of the EU committee said.

"However, we were surprised to find inadequate fencing, the replacement of which might prevent 1500 illegal migrants from boarding lorries bound for Britain.

"The British and French authorities must take immediate action to remedy this."

Conservative shadow home secretary David Davis criticised the government's border policy and called on prime minister Gordon Brown to answer Tory calls for a dedicated border police force.

"This revelation exposes yet again how porous our borders have become under Labour. This despite 10 years in power and millions spent on technology trying to tackle the problem," Mr Davis said.

"The government must take action with the French authorities to ensure they meet their responsibilities in Calais. And Gordon Brown must answer our calls for a dedicated border police force – with proper police powers – to protect the UK from the scourge of illegal immigration and the crime that flows with it."

The EU committee report also recommended that the government participated more fully with the development and operations of Frontex, the EU's external border agency, to protect UK borders.

"We have been impressed by the way Frontex has gone about its task of helping protect Europe's borders, but we think it could do an even better job with fuller UK involvement," Lord Jopling said.

"Britain has a lot of experience of policing both sea and land borders, and this experience would be useful to Frontex as it coordinates the efforts of Members States to prevent illegal immigration."

In response, a Border and Immigration Agency spokesperson said: "The UK has a legitimate interest in the security of the external European border.

"Maintaining the security and integrity of our borders is a key priority. Our borders are some of the toughest in the world. Last year we searched over one million lorries and prevented a record 18,000 attempts by illegal immigrants to cross the channel.

"But we are not complacent and must continue to respond to the challenges that mass migration brings. To further tighten controls we are introducing biometric IDs for non-EEA foreign nationals from 2008 and have doubled resources for enforcement."