Fines reimposed on drivers carrying migrants

Lorry drivers bringing in clandestine migrants face new fines from this weekend.Figures released yesterday showed Britain was the most popular destination in the first world for asylum-seekers.

The Immigration minister, Beverley Hughes, said drivers would be fined £2,000 per illegal immigrant if they had failed to take measures to ensure their vehicle was secure.

The fines, which will also apply to cars and vans, will be imposed unless drivers can prove they have carried out checks on the vehicles before leaving for Britain.

Ms Hughes said the penalties, which also apply to owners and hirers of vehicles, were "about prevention, not punishment". She said: "It is wholly reasonable to expect hauliers and other carriers to take responsibility for the security of their lorries or transporters and take effective measures to prevent clandestine entrants being brought to the UK."

The fines were introduced after the original system of penalties for drivers transporting clandestine migrants was successfully challenged in the courts, on the grounds that many drivers had no idea the passengers were aboard their vehicles.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) announced yesterday that more asylum-seekers were heading to Britain than any other wealthy country in the world. The UNHCR said asylum applications to Germany had tumbled by 18 per cent in the first nine months of this year to 54,272.

The United States had received 64,040, a fall of 4 per cent, while Britain had received 80,530, an increase of 20 per cent and the highest figure among 29 wealthy countries.

Applications filed in Europe as a wholenumbered 335,242, little changed on last year.

The largest group of refugees moving to the West were Iraqis (36,282), followed by people from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (24,330), Turkey (21,676) and Afghanistan (20,460). The number of Chinese applying for asylum in the industrialised countries jumped by 26 per cent to 19,787.

A further group of about 80 Iraqi migrants were due in Britain last night after being granted four-year work visas as part of the deal to close the Sangatte refugee camp.

The first 40 of 980 Iraqis from Sangatte in northern France arrived by coach on Thursday and spent yesterday exploring London. Takeaway portions of Malaysian chicken curry were delivered to their modest central London hotel.

Many spoke limited English. A man named Talib said he had spent two years travelling from his home in Baghdad to reach Sangatte. "Saddam Hussein not good. England very good," he said, adding that his wife and baby were still in Iraq.