FULL EUROSTAR IMMIGRATION CONTROLS MOVE TO EUROPE

1 Oct 2004 02:15 PM

Full UK immigration controls on Eurostar trains will move from London to Europe, following the finalising today of a deal between the UK and Belgium Governments signed by Home Office Minister Caroline Flint at The Hague.

The agreement builds on an earlier deal with Belgium and France and extends UK immigration controls to all Eurostar trains from Belgium to the UK.

Together with the Home Secretary's long standing deal with the French Government, today's agreement moves all UK immigration controls on Eurostar passengers from London Waterloo station to stations in Europe. Immigration officers will be able to stop individuals with false, stolen or inadequate documents or those who do not have permission to enter the UK before they can board trains to Britain.

Home Office Minister Des Browne said:

"The agreement we have reached today is a significant step forward and our partnership with Belgium and France has been vital to this. I am grateful to Patrick Dewael and Dominique de Villepin for their co-operation.

"Our strategy of moving more border controls abroad is already paying dividends. At French Eurostar stations, introducing UK document checks has cut asylum applications at Waterloo by more than 90 per cent.

"Today's agreement with Belgium will enable us to move our controls from London Waterloo to Brussels, stopping would-be illegal immigrants before they set off for the UK.

"We are making it increasingly difficult for illegal immigrants to enter Britain by employing hi-tech scanning for clandestines at ferry ports in Belgium, France and Holland and improved security around the Channel Tunnel entrance. Our future plans to start electronic border controls at UK ports will further strengthen our borders.

"This work will complement the new measures that have just come into force to deal with rogue immigration advisers and asylum seekers who deliberately destroy their travel documents."

Notes for editors

1. Powers in the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 enable UK immigration controls to be extended to any EEA port by mutual agreement.

2. UK Immigration Officers have been checking all non stop UK-bound Eurostar trains leaving Brussels-Midi station since July 2004 (see Home Office press notice 152/2004)

3. The tripartite agreement signed today at The Hague will enable UK immigration officers to begin checks on all Eurostar trains leaving Brussels-Midi station from the end of October 2004. The French Government previously signed the agreement in April 2004.

4. UK immigration controls already operate in France at Calais, Dunkerque and Boulogne ferry ports, the Eurotunnel terminal of Coquelles and the Eurostar stations of Paris Gare du Nord, Lille and Calais Frethun.

5. As the immigration controls in Brussels become fully operational, immigration officers will cease to operate at London Waterloo.

6. Detection technology has been operating at Calais and Coquelles ports in France since summer 2002; at Zeebrugge and Ostend ports in Belgium since summer 2003 and Vlissingen in Holland since December 2003

7. Plans for the first stage of the Government's programme to introduce electronic border controls were announced on 28 September 2004 (see Home Office press notice 304/2004)

8. Additionally new measures in the Asylum and Immigration (treatment of claimants etc) 2004 Act came into force today enabling action to be taken against rogue legal advisers who advise asylum seekers on how to defraud the UK asylum system.

9. A commencement order was today laid in Parliament which will give the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner new powers to act against unregulated immigration advisers. The Commissioner's new powers include:

* Being able to enter premises where he suspects immigration advise is illegally provided, in order to seize material; and

* A new criminal offence of advertising or offering to act as an immigration adviser when unqualified.