Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what systems are in place to keep track of the location of undocumented people who arrive in the UK by small boats’ personal items that are taken into the custody of Home Office agents upon arrival.

Dry clothing is provided after arrival at Dover, with the consequence that people are parted from their wet clothing and possessions. These are bagged and logged, and go with the person during their journey through the reception process.

During the reception phase, people are searched for anything which might injure themselves or others, as well as for documentation related to their journey to the UK. These items are retained during the reception process but, if not contraband, are returned to the individual upon release into accommodation and our aim is to reunite people with their possessions as quickly as possible. Identity documentation is retained until such time as an individual is either granted leave to enter, or is removed from the UK. It should be noted no cash belonging to people arriving by small boat is retained by either HO staff or contractors, but is instead returned immediately unless the sum is of such a magnitude that an investigation into potential proceeds of crime is warranted.

Inevitably, with such large volumes of persons being processed and the challenging conditions in which journeys are made, items can be mislaid. Every effort is made to reduce the risk of this happening, and there is a lost property process to enable people to raise any concerns about missing possessions. The lost property cases which do occur represent a small percentage of overall arrival numbers, but there are no plans to publish this data at present.