§ Bob SpinkTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent estimate he has made of the number of illegal immigrants who have entered the UK concealed in lorries. [182725]
§ Mr. BrowneThere is no official estimate of the number of clandestine entrants to the UK.
Illegal entry action is initiated against those people who are detected having entered or attempting to enter the country clandestinely or by means of deception, either verbal or documentary.
The available figures include those people who were identified as having entered the country clandestinely, they are not separately identifiable as such information would be available only by examination of individual case-files at disproportionate cost.
The Immigration Service has deployed a range of initiatives to deter and detect illegal entry to the UK including moving controls overseas, enhancing juxtaposed controls in Paris, Lille and Calais, deploying New Detection Technology in France and Belgium, the Airline Liaison Officer Network, visa regimes and close co-operation with carriers, port authorities and our ED colleagues. These measures successfully prevented over 9,000 people reaching the UK from France during 2003.