The government has announced plans to tackle people smugglers bringing in illegal migrants across the Channel – but hauliers warn more needs to be done to tackle lorry stowaways.
Ministers revealed proposals last week to develop legislation for a new sanctions regime targeting irregular migration and organised immigration crime.
Foreign secretary David Lammy said the new regime would “cripple people-smuggling crime rings and starve them of illicit finance fuelling their operations”.
The proposals were expected to come into force within the year, part of the Labour government’s Plan for Change and its commitments to reduce small boat crossings and end the routine use of asylum hotels.
However, commercial hauliers have warned more needs to be done to tackle illegal crossings from Europe into the UK by road as “the same gangs loading people onto boats” were also helping migrants breaking into vehicles.
The Road Haulage Association said it was concerned about the “effectiveness” of the current civil penalty scheme in place to deter clandestine migrants from entering Britain hidden in the backs of lorries.
“We support the government’s efforts to dismantle people-smuggling gangs and their trade in human misery, and we’re hopeful the measures they’ve announced today will be a sufficiently disruptive deterrent,” said Ashton Cull, RHA public affairs lead.
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“Commercial vehicle operators get unwittingly caught up in this trade, with criminal gangs using ever-resourceful ways of securing ‘clandestine entrants’ into UK-bound vehicles undetected.
“The same gangs who are loading people onto boats for perilous sea crossings without any regard for their safety are doing the same thing when helping them break into vehicles.
“This also puts drivers at risk and leaves them and their employers liable to receiving huge fines if people are discovered on board.”
Cull added there were concerns “about the effectiveness of the clandestine entrant civil penalty scheme”, whereby commercial drivers and private motorists can be fined for failing to adequately secure their goods vehicles against illegal migrants.
“We hear of drivers and firms who’ve made every effort to keep their vehicles secure fall foul of its measures which include fines of up to £10,000 per ‘clandestine entrant’,” Cull said, pointing to hauliers themselves often being the targets of people smugglers.
The Grocer has previously reported on cases of hauliers being hit with fines of up to £100,000 for unknowingly carrying people in their trucks.
The RHA has called for reforms of the scheme to ensure better protection for drivers and haulage companies, including better training for Border Force officials, greater support from UK and French authorities for targeted drivers, and a declaration that drivers are not expected to intervene with so-called clandestine entrants.
RHA MD Richard Smith also said: “We recognise the role our industry plays in keeping the border secure, and support all reasonable measures to deter clandestine entrants as well as penalise those drivers and operators who aren’t taking the necessary steps to secure their vehicles.
“However, as tactics and techniques for hiding on vehicles evolve, it is vital the scheme also evolves so operators and drivers are not unfairly punished.”
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It is still not clear what the government sanctions regime will look like, but Labour said it would allow the UK to target individuals and entities “enabling dangerous journeys”.
Sanctions experts from across government will work with law enforcement and operational Home Office colleagues to deliver the scheme, it said.
Lammy said: “It is completely unrealistic to combat irregular migration without a role for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. It is an issue which ties together the foreign and the domestic most acutely.
“People smuggling poses significant challenges to global security and the UK, and alongside partners across Europe, we are working hand in glove to develop novel and bold solutions to tackle irregular upstream migration,” he added. “This sanctions development is the latest innovative move by the government to use every tool possible to crack down on vile people smugglers risking people’s lives in the Channel.”
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