STOWAWAY FIASCO
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am calling on all international drivers to demand their trucks are checked by immigration officials before they enter the country. This would immediately put an end to the ridiculous fines that the Home Office is applying to drivers unlucky enough to innocently carry immigrants into the UK.
Imagine the queues as drivers forced them to check vehicles—it would soon cause a change of heart.
Is this just another ploy by a Government which appears hellbent on destroying the ever shrinking international haulage industry? Because it certainly looks like it.
As far as I can see the system of £2,000 fines will do two things. First, it will drive some unlucky hauliers out of business because you can't expect a busy driver to do the same job as an immigration officer. Second, it will encourage drivers who do find immigrants in their trucks once they're inside the UK to keep quiet about it.
I can't think of another situation where reporting someone else's crime to the police brings the risk of huge fines to the informant. But that's just one more example of the authorities not understanding, or not caring, how their crazy laws will affect those of us who have to work in the real world.
Arthur Woolridge, Stoke-on-Trent.