Thanks .
[Photo: ALAMY] The Dover scandal has the potential to be bigger than that at the airports
Posted on 11/15/2011 8:18:41 PM PST by SunkenCiv
The policy was in place for four years after being introduced when Labour was in power, but never disclosed to Parliament.
It was implemented because the French complained about congestion in Calais caused by backlogs at passport control.
Ministers discovered the scheme earlier this month and ended it ten days ago when the Border Agency official in charge of the southern ports was suspended, along with Brodie Clark, the director of the UK Border Force, who was accused of relaxing passport checks at airports on non-European Union citizens without ministers' permission.
The Dover scandal has the potential to be bigger than that at the airports and will add to political pressure on Theresa May, the Home Secretary.
It is estimated that up to 17 million coach passengers passed through Dover's ferry terminal in the last four years, of whom the majority would have been on British-registered coaches.
It was not known last night if the policy was implemented at other ports, and whether it was operated around the clock or at the busiest times.
Relaxing controls at Dover is particularly damaging because the port has been identified as one of the main routes for illegal entry to the country.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
[Photo: ALAMY] The Dover scandal has the potential to be bigger than that at the airports
Mea Dope-a — please ignore the “israel” keyword here, that’s in my standard foreign news template for FR, and I forgot to remove it.
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