PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Undocumented Migrants (1 July 2020)

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what information her Department holds on the number of detected attempts of people trying to enter the UK by clandestine in 2019 (a) in the back of lorries or in lorry containers, (b) in small boats via the English Channel and (c) entering via the Common Travel Area.

Asked by:
Sir John Hayes (Conservative)

Border Force does not routinely publish this level of data on clandestine entry or attempts to enter the UK.

Border Force continues to work closely with partners in the UK and overseas to strike people smuggling at the source – identifying and dismantling the organised crime groups that facilitate illegal immigration. They use an array of search techniques including sniffer dogs, carbon dioxide detectors, heartbeat monitors and scanners - as well as visual searches - to find well-hidden stowaways, illegal drugs, firearms and tobacco.

Additionally, the UK works abroad to reduce factors that may push or force people to attempt such journeys - through creating jobs, tackling modern slavery, providing education and delivering life-saving humanitarian assistance in response to conflicts and natural disasters.

Answered by:
Chris Philp (Conservative)
10 July 2020