Machine detects port illegals?
Machine to detect port illegals
is working weekdays only
By David Harrison in Ostend and Justin Stares
c Telegraph Co.Uk.
(Filed: 30/07/2006)
A machine that detects the heartbeats of people hiding
in UK-bound lorries at the Belgian port of Ostend is
being switched off at night and at weekends.
Even when the £40 million machine is operating, it
does not work properly because, more than two years
after it was installed at the behest of the British
Government, the Home Office has still not paid the
bill and the supplier refuses to carry out a vital
upgrade until it does.
The heartbeat detector does not work properly
The improvements could make the heartbeat detector
almost 100 per cent effective.
The fiasco is deeply embarrassing for the Government,
coming days after John Reid, the Home Secretary,
announced a fresh crackdown on illegal immigrants.
The machine has been defective for months, allowing
scores of illegal immigrants to go undetected in the
backs of lorries as they are driven on to one of up to
13 ferries that leave for Britain every day.
Rudy Bollaerts, the port’s police chief, said: “We are
doing everything we can to stop illegal immigrants
going to Britain, then we learn there is a huge hole
in the system.”
Ronald Kreps, the Ostend Harbour Master, said that the
machine also had to be switched off between 3am and
8am and at weekends because the port could not afford
extra staff.
“We simply do not have the resources to use it 24
hours a day, seven days a week,” he said.
A Home Office spokesman said: “We always try to pay
our invoices promptly but we do not discuss individual cases.”
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