Operators avoiding fines for stowaway offences

More than one third of civil penalties issued last year to truck operators found crossing the English Channel with stowaways on board have not been collected, immigration minister James Brokenshire has admitted.

Giving evidence on the migrant crisis to a Home Affairs Committee hearing last week (8 September), Brokenshire said that of the £6.6m-worth of clandestine-related civil penalties imposed in 2014-2015, only £4m – just over 60% – had been collected.

During the previous year, he said, £4.2m of fines were levied with just £2.2m or approximately half (52%) collected.

At the time of going to press, Commercialmotor.com was waiting for the Home Office to confirm how many of the unpaid civil penalties were levied on foreign-registered trucks and how many on UK-registered trucks.

However, a spokesman said that 73% of stowaway-related civil penalties issued in 2013 were attributable to hauliers from seven nations: Poland (22.5%); Romania (15.3%); Britain (9.59%); Hungary (8.88%); Bulgaria (6.49%); Lithuania (5.17%); and the
Czech Republic (5.02%).

At the hearing, Border Force director general Sir Charles Montgomery told the committee that 30,000 illegal crossings had been thwarted by the French and UK authorities in the first three months of this financial year.

Although detection was getting better, he said, “the fact is that the numbers coming through from the central Mediterranean basin and east Mediterranean basin have been increasing markedly during the course of this year”.

Montgomery added that the numbers had reduced, however, since the surge in migrant activity over the summer as extra security measures had taken effect.

At the same session, Natacha Bouchart, mayor of Calais, warned that the problems affecting the port were not going away anytime soon.

• This story originally appeared in the 17 September issue. Why not subscribe and get 12 issues for just £12?