§ Mr. MalinsTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of(a) lorries and (b) other vehicles passing through Dover from France were not checked in Dover for purposes of seeking to discover illegal immigrants in the last 12 months.[142167]
§ Beverley HughesApproximately 2,500 lorries arrive at Dover every day on board cross channel ferries. Port authorities and operators in both Calais and Dunkerque check all lorries entering their port and again using UK supplied New Detection Technology (NDT) before lorries board ferries for the UK.
As it is clearly more effective to have searched lorries before they embark on ferries to the UK than on arrival at Dover lorries are selected for search by Immigration Service search teams only on an intelligence-led basis employing known profiles of vehicles used in people smuggling. Other vehicles such as private cars and vans are systematically checked in France by agents acting for the ferry operator.
Again, targeted checks by Immigration Officers are carried out on arrival at Dover.