Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the number of people attempting to enter the UK illegally who were intercepted at (a) Calais, (b) Zeebrugge and (c) Ostend in each of the last three years; and how much her Department has spent on measures to help prevent the entry of illegal immigrants to the UK through each such port in each of the last three years.

To ensure the integrity and security of the UK border Her Majesty’s Government does not provide port specific statistics.

In 2013/14 the number of clandestine people detected at juxtaposed controls in France by Border Force and other agencies was around 18,000 – a rise of over 60 percent from around 11,000 in FY2012/13.

Zeebrugge and Ostend in Belgium are not juxtaposed ports. Border Force officers assist Belgian Federal Police at Zeebrugge in freight searching at their invitation but there is no formal juxtaposed control treaty.

The annual cost for Border Force at the port of Calais per fiscal year is:

2011/12 - £14,792,027
2012/13 - £15,825,541
2013/14 - £17,548,829

Between 2012 and 2014 the UK has also provided an upgraded Passive Millimetric Wave Imager (PMMWI) for use by P&O ferries at Zeebrugge. This is one of five PMWWI machines in use in France and Zeebrugge which were upgraded in the last two years at a total cost of £2 million.