§ Mr. Andrew TurnerTo ask the Prime Minister pursuant to his answer of 22 January 2003 to the right hon. Member for Chingford and Woodford Green (Mr. Duncan Smith),Official Report, column 295, what the evidential basis is for his statement that the Government has put juxtaposed controls across all ports; and what kind of controls are in place for ports on the Isle of Wight. [94507]
§ The Prime MinisterThis Government introduced three formal juxtaposed frontier controls in France, to cover Eurostar services at Paris Gare du Nord, Lille1026W Europe and Calais Frethun stations, in June 2001. These controls have had a dramatic impact on the number of inadequately documented arrivals at Waterloo and Ashford International stations. There had previously been a juxtaposed immigration control at the Eurotunnel site at Coquelles.
The establishment of juxtaposed controls in Calais and Dover is a priority and was agreed in principle by the Home Secretary and his French counterpart in July 2002. UK Immigration Officers have been working with their French counterparts in an advisory capacity at Calais since August 2002. We will sign a treaty soon to set the legal framework to provide for full immigration controls at Calais and subsequently at other channel ports. We will deploy immigration service resources on a targeted and flexible, intelligence led basis to ports other than Calais to counteract any displacement that may occur.
UK Immigration Officers operate in a similar capacity in Brussels. We are negotiating with the Belgian Government to introduce a formal juxtaposed immigration control at Gare du Midi in Brussels for Eurostar services to the UK.
The Immigration Office in Portsmouth deal with all arrivals at the Isle of Wight that require the attention of the Immigration Service.