Chief Inspector reports on juxtaposed controls
The Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration has recently published a report following his inspection into the effectiveness of the juxtaposed controls.
Juxtaposed controls were first established in 1994 to speed up entry and exit procedures on the Channel Tunnel route. They were subsequently introduced on the Eurostar route in 2001 and at the ferry ports in northern France in 2003 to counter the significant number of undocumented people arriving in the UK and claiming asylum. The juxtaposed controls represent a unique example of co-operation between the UK, France and Belgium to enable border security checks to be carried out on passengers before they travel to the UK.
The Chief Inspectors report found that the UK Home Office was working effectively with its French and Belgium counterparts to prevent illegal entrants from coming into the UK. However, it raised concerns over a lack of fingerprinting of illegal immigrants at Calais and Coquelles. It also highlighted the need for improvement in following guidance and legislation, particularly in relation to interviewing.
The Chief Inspector made seven recommendations to the Home Office. These include that passenger interviews are conducted in accordance with existing policy and guidance, the effectiveness of the Civil Penalty scheme is improved, and the Home Office reconsiders its approach regarding the fingerprinting of clandestines.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v1.0.
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