Action plan created to tackle French coast migrants

Thursday 13 July 2017

Immigration officials have drafted an emergency plan to tackle migrants arriving in Jersey from the French coast, it has emerged.

Working together with charities and the French authorities, the action plan was formulated by Customs and Immigration last year, following a number of attempts by migrants to sail to Jersey in a small craft.

The news comes as part of the Customs and Immigration Annual Report for 2016 – a year in which the Calais ‘Jungle’ crisis reached its height, sparking fears that Jersey would be used as a ‘back door’ to the UK. 

Figures from last year showed that 17 individuals were refused at the Island's ports. 15 of these were refused for failing to meet immigration requirements, while two had tried to gain access through forged or counterfeit identity documents.

Pictured: The now-bulldozed Calais 'Jungle' housed thousands of asylum seekers across the sea from Jersey.

For the first time, the year also saw an asylum seeker found concealed in the boot of a vehicle. They had been hoping to reach the UK by using Jersey as a transit point, but, after being found out, were sentenced to ten weeks’ imprisonment in the Magistrates’ Court. The driver of the vehicle was also charged.

Such events have led to stricter controls, which, the report lamented, had led to some complaints regarding, “…the length of time it takes to pass through the immigration control.”

Nonetheless, the report described the impact of recent events on immigration controls as “inevitable”, adding: “It is timely to remind the travelling public that the current situation in Europe means that it is highly likely that the queues for the immigration control in the Island will be longer than has been experienced in previous years.”

Pictured: Islanders complained about increased waiting times due to more thorough border controls in 2016.

In order to continue to ensure that the Island’s immigration is robustly regulated, Customs have therefore resolved to:

• Ensure that officers continue to receive specialist forgery training from the National Document Forgery Unit.

• Ensure that officers continue to undertake secondments to UK ports to further enhance their immigration expertise.

• Continue to exchange intelligence with both the French and UK authorities regarding illegal immigration and allocate resources according to the risk.