AMSTERDAM: Belgium and the Netherlands are being asked to help keep illegal migrants from British ports following a tightening of border security in Calais.
Theresa May, UK home secretary, said on a visit to the French port she was concerned about migrants seeking alternative routes to avoid a joint police command set up in Calais to disrupt human trafficking gangs.
We are … looking at the security of other ports. We are very well aware of the possibility of displacement,” Ms May said on Thursday. “The immigration minister [James Brokenshire] has already had discussions with the Dutch and Belgian authorities to look at ports there and whether work might need to be done there. Of course we are looking at other ports like Dunkirk.”
Mr Brokenshire is expected to travel to the Netherlands and Belgium for further discussions, with Zeebrugge in Belgium and the Hook of Holland being seen as potentially vulnerable.
During the visit, Ms May signed a joint declaration with Bernard Cazeneuve, the French interior minister, committing to a combined police operation against criminals who exploit migrants and a range of security measures at the Channel tunnel.
These include extra security guard patrols as well as more detection teams and sniffer dogs to search freight vehicles. There will also be better floodlighting, closed-circuit television and infrared surveillance equipment.
There are thought to be between 3,000 and 5,000 migrants camped around Calais, most of whom have travelled across the Mediterranean from Africa and the Middle East.
The declaration emphasised correcting “misapprehensions” about conditions in the UK, and announced a fortnightly programme of information aiming to give likely travellers a “more dissuasive and realistic sense” of life as an illegal migrant in Britain.
The UK will contribute translators and analysts speaking languages including Pashtun, Oromo, Tigrinya, Amharic and Tamil, and the French will provide speakers of Albanian, Ukrainian, Dutch, Arabic and Kurdish
