Shropshire-bound migrants stopped
Tuesday 12th May 2009, 10:45AM BST.
Six illegal immigrants have been caught trying to sneak into the UK in the back of a lorry bound for Shropshire.
The six, all from Vietnam, were caught when the lorry full of car parts was stopped at border controls in Calais, the UK Border Agency said today.
A detection dog sniffed out the lorry’s human cargo.
When immigration officers opened the lorry, they found the six males – five adults and a youth – hiding among the car parts.
The lorry was en route from Germany to a firm in Stafford Park, Telford, when it was stopped on Wednesday, at about 6.20pm.
The UK Border Agency said the lorry was allowed to continue its journey to the UK once the stowaways had been removed and handed over to the French authorities.
Tom Dowdall, agency director, who heads operations in northern France, said: “We have hundreds of UK Border Agency officers, based at ports in France and Belgium, carrying out checks to stop illegal immigrants before they get to the UK.
“We use sniffer dogs, carbon dioxide and heartbeat detectors to find stowaways trying to get into the UK illegally.
“Our British controls in northern France continue to prevent illegal migrants from entering the UK, stopping more than 28,000 attempts in 2008.”
An agency spokesman declined to name the company involved but warned a financial penalty of up to £2,000 per stowaway may be applied. Officers are investigating the case.
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Surely it is time we had better security at our ports in the UK. Heat detectors which are used in Police helicopters can detect body heat so why is this not used at out busy ports?
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No doubt the police will be learning Vietnamese now.
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What on earth would they want to come to Shropshire for?!
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Shropshire County Council will be putting up signs in Vietnamese now!
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No doubt they have seen the Muller yoghurt advert and have decided to enjoy the delights of Shropshire.
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Im surprised border controls don’t have welcome signs for all the illegal immigrants or have the goverment beat them to it by giving them every benefit available plus a nice house as soon as they screech the immortal words “asylum”
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Why not come to the UK even the goverment are having extra helpings of the tax payers pot.
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Will they be entitled to a free bath plug and bag of manure. Will the road signs now be changed to include vietnamese?
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Womble,
You’re showing your ignorance.
Despite what you might read in tabloid rags, illegal immigrants and asylum seekers aren’t entitled to any benefits. What funding they do receive often comes from charities. Even people legally coming here to work from abroad are only entitled to minimal benefits until they’ve been paying in to the system for a while.
But why let facts get in the way of a bit of good old-fashioned xenophobia eh?
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Peter
I suppose the benefits we pay to children in Eastern Europe, who have never been here, are fiction?
So much tax so much dross!
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Moon,
Any benefits paid to EU workers are a) contribution based, and b) reciprocal, so would apply equally to anyone from this country wishing to settle and work in another EU country.
You clearly didn’t read my original response properly. You cannot be an illegal immigrant or an asylum seeker from one EU country to another.
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To Peter! The illegal immigrants who do make these shores are supported by this country by taking a job, cash in hand & without contributing to the tax and welfare system or by crime. Do you condone this?
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Dave, and who is putting cash in their hands ey? British people!!
Its not the goverment who makes it an easy ride for them its us!
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Dave,
There are many illegal immigrants in this country who are not working illegally, not involved in crime, but who are living in very poor circumstances, often supported by charity.
I would of course not condone anyone who comes here to commit crime, such as people trafficking, which as I’m sure you’ll know also has illegal immigrants as its victims.
As for those working illegally, I don’t condone that either, but since many of those working in this manner are paid very much less than the minimum wage and are generally exploited, I would see the employers involved as the greater villains of the piece.
I would also prefer the work ethic of an illegal immigrant to the complete lack of work ethic in a minority of our indigenous unemployed.
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given the racist nature of the average Shropshire resident, as examplified in the majortity of the comments posted, who in their right mind, knowing what a bigoted bunch they are would want to set foot in the uk.
I suggest that the commentators be employed by HMG to visit overseas so as many as possible are put off from coming here. Hopefully they will get the same reception that they would give others.
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Peter: Technically you can be a resident of one EU country and seek asylum in another EU country, however with the free movement of citizens, it would seem practically irrelevant. The point is we are still a sovereign state and not the United States of Europe although it is hard to believe at times.
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Lucy W – Unless you are Welsh or Scottish your descendents came from the United states of Europe.
I would suggest you have a open mind to Europeans settling in this country.
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Post 17 -
Descendants? My children are English, and come from England as do I. I think you mean ancestors. In which case, most English people will have at least some ancient Britons as ancestors. Oh, by the way, the Celts were not the original inhabitants of Wales or Scotland either. I also very much doubt you’re 100% Celtic.
Oh and last time I checked Vietnam was not in Europe.
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It would have been the cultural shock of their life’s emerging at Stafford Park; the poor souls could have been wandering around Telford for years looking for the town centre.
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Y Mab: Actually we all decend from Africans. I saw it on TV the other night. I would well revommend watching the next episode.
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