§ Mr. CoxTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many known illegal immigrants have reached the UK after travelling through the channel tunnel on freight trains in 2002. [50878]
319W
§ Angela EagleIt is not possible to establish precisely how many illegal entrants have reached the United Kingdom after travelling through the channel tunnel on freight trains. Some are detected inland and cannot be attributed to a particular port of entry and some claim to use the channel tunnel but have in fact entered by a different route.
Information on the known number of illegal entrants who have arrived in the United Kingdom in 2002 is not yet available.
Provisional management information for 2001 indicates that a total of 1,552 illegal entrants, who had been concealed on board freight trains, were detected on arrival at Dollands Moor freight yard.
The locally collated figures show this total is broken down over the calendar year as follows: 504 (January-March), 240 (April-June), 183 (July-September) and 625 (October-December).