§ Earl Attleeasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether any combination of checks and tests carried out on goods vehicles prior to embarkation on cross-Channel ferry can be reasonably certain of detecting clandestine entrants. [HL4]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Home Office (Lord Filkin)The United Kingdom (UK) Government are seeking to deploy a variety of detection technologies to screen UK-bound freight at key European feeder ports and are currently installing equipment in Calais. The Immigration Service uses several types of equipment to detect clandestine entrants concealed in freight vehicles, each having its own particular strengths and weaknesses in terms of speed of use and effectiveness. By deploying a variety of technologies, including heartbeat detectors, passive millimetric wave imagers and CO2 detectors, backed up by visual searches, search teams will be able to screen vehicles with the technology most suited to the type and level of traffic using the port while avoiding excessive delays to embarking vehicles.
The effectiveness of the technology will depend to a large extent on the skills of the search teams using the equipment, but full training will be provided by the UK Government and the results will be evaluated.
Controlled operational trials have confirmed that the technology and search systems that the Immigration Service is introducing are effective in detecting clandestine entrants. However, we have not reached the stage where we can be confident of detecting 100 per cent of people concealed in lorries. The checks being introduced are intended to supplement security measures adopted by vehicle drivers and port operators, not replace them.