Arrests for illegal entry into UK rise to 27,000 in three years

Freedom of Information requests reveal sharp rise in arrests made

Arrests of people suspected to have entered the UK illegally have risen dramatically over the past three years (Reuters)

More than 27,000 people suspected of illegally entering the UK have been arrested over the past three years, according to statistics gathered from police forces across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The figures obtained by the BBC, showed nearly a 25 per cent rise in arrests from 2013 to 2015. Many of those arrested were found at motorway service stations and truck stops, having hidden away in lorries.

The Home Office said it wanted to develop “long-term solutions” to illegal migration.

Four forces - including Police Scotland - did not provide data, while some only provided partial information.

The figures, released under the Freedom of Information Act, shows that officers across the UK made 7,709 arrests for illegal entry in 2013.

The number increased slightly to 7,913 the following year and climbed to 9,600 in 2015, when many countries in Europe were struggling to deal with the refugee crises.

The total figure over the period from January 2013 to April of this year was 27,800. This total does not include people arrested for staying longer in the country than they are entitled to, nor those detained at ports and airports, who are dealt with by Border Force staff.

The police forces with the highest arrest rates outside of London’s Metropolitan Police were Kent, Greater Manchester and West Midlands.

Commons Home Affairs Committee chairman Keith Vaz called for “urgent action” to tackle the issue, having told the BBC that the “astonishing figures basically show that our border is not secure.

“The Government keeps maintaining that they have got water-tight security at our borders.

“If 27,000 people have been arrested for entering the country illegally by our police forces then it shows that this problem is even worse than we had anticipated and we expect urgent action to be taken.”

Dover’s Conservative MP, Charlie Elphicke, has suggested further patrols in the Channel as a solution.

“We need to deal with the camps at Dunkirk and elsewhere and by the Channel ports. We also need to deal with the problem of people-trafficking by small craft.

“That’s why I’ve been calling for a marine-led new Dover patrol to make sure that the English Channel is kept safe and secure.”

The Home Office commented on the findings, having said that when someone is found to have no right to remain in the UK, it will take action to remove them.